DeKalb- The World Health Organization declared Coronavirus a public health emergency at a news conference Thursday in Geneva. 

According to WebMD, Coronavirus is a kind of common infection in your nose, sinuses, or upper throat. According to the Washington Post, over 8,000 people in mainland China have been infected with the virus and it is spreading. 

This past week, the first transmission of Coronavirus happened in the U.S with a woman in her 60s, who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China, transmitted the disease to her husband, a male also in his 60s, in Chicago. After that incident, it has brought the number of people infected in the U.S up to six with two infected in Illinois. 

The WHO decided not to declare an emergency last week but cases have been reported in countries like Germany, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, and the U.S with patients who have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus without having visited China. That human-to-human transmission outside of China “worries us,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general at WHO said. 

“The risk to the general public in Illinois remains low,” state health officials stressed. They said that they do not believe that the virus is spreading quickly in communities and the patients are being quarantined in hospitals. 

According to the New York Times, there are more than 7,700 cases around the world for Coronavirus with the fatality rate being just above two percent with all of the fatalities being in China. 

The best recommendations for Americans who are worried about their health would be to practice proper flu season hygiene, including frequent handwashing, covering coughs, and keeping up to date on information from the CDC. The CDC does not recommend wearing a facemask to prevent Coronavirus.  

“Our assessment remains that the immediate risk to the American public is low,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.