Risk assessment

The risk associated with COVID-19 infection for people in the EU/EEA and UK is currently considered to be moderate to high, based on the probability of transmission and the impact of the disease.

On 31 December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown aetiology was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. On 9 January 2020, China CDC reported a novel coronavirus as the causative agent of this outbreak, which is phylogenetically in the SARS-CoV clade. The disease associated to it is now referred to as novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

As of 2 March 2020 at 08:00, more than 89 068 cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, mainly in China and from all Chinese provinces; of these cases, around 9 000 cases were reported from other countries. As of 2 March, 66 countries have reported cases.

The risk associated with COVID-19 infection for people in the EU/EEA and UK is currently considered to be moderate to high, based on the probability of transmission and the impact of the disease.