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It was the second go-around on the question in a week, and on Thursday, the World Health Organization deemed it time to declare the rogue coronavirus a global health emergency.

The fast-spreading pathogen has escalated “into an unprecedented outbreak” and countries must prepare for its containment, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization said in declaring the virus known as 2019-nCOV a “public health emergency of international concern.”

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In Canada, samples from 101 people have been sent to the national microbiology laboratory in Winnipeg. So far, three have been confirmed positive for the virus and 58 have been ruled out, leaving 40 still under investigation.

We must all act together now to limit further spread

While lavishing praise on China for the speed with which the country detected the outbreak, isolated the virus, sequenced the genome and shared it with the WHO and the world, “we don’t know what sort of damage this virus could do if it were to spread in a country with a weaker health system.