(CNN) The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is not a pandemic, World Health Organization officials said Tuesday, adding that they're hopeful transmission of the virus can be contained.

The agency acknowledges that it is challenging to contain the virus because of global mass movement.

"We are not in a pandemic," Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of the World Health Organization's Infectious Hazards Management Department said in a press conference on Tuesday, explaining that the virus is currently considered to be an epidemic with multiple locations.

"We will try to extinguish the transmission in each of these," she said, adding that the agency believes this "can be done with containment measures currently in place."

Current control measures in place include early case detection, early isolation and treatment of cases, contact tracing and social detention measures in places where there is risk of transmission, Briand said. These are the core elements of any outbreak response and might be enough to stop an infection from spreading.

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