The World Health Organization has warned coronavirus could hit every country in the world, as 57 countries are infected out of 195.

WHO said the outbreak is teetering on the edge of becoming a pandemic which is “getting bigger.”

In just seven days Europe saw an explosion in people being infected with the virus as cases soared from 40 to more than 800 in a week.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for WHO said in a news briefing in Geneva, “The outbreak is getting bigger.

“The scenario of the coronavirus reaching multiple countries, if not all countries around the world, is something we have been looking at and warning against since quite a while.”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general said at the briefing in Geneva. “This virus has pandemic potential.

“We are actually in a very delicate situation in which the outbreak can go in any direction based on how we handle it.’”

Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, told the press conference the coronavirus outbreak is not a pandemic.

Dr Ryan said, “A pandemic is a unique situation which we believe that all citizens on the planet will likely be exposed to a virus within a defined period of time.

“If this was influenza, we would have probably have called this as a pandemic by now but what we’ve seen of this virus is that with containment measures and a robust public health response the course of this epidemic or multiple epidemics can be significantly altered.

“To declare a pandemic; it is unhelpful to do that when you’re still trying to contain a disease.’

He added, “If we say there is a pandemic of coronavirus we are essentially accepting every human on the planet will be exposed to that virus and the data does not support that as yet and China have clearly shown that is not necessarily the natural outcome of this event if we take action.

“That does not have to be the history of this event but if we don’t take action…that may be a future we have to experience, and we have to endure.”