Mar 16, 2020, 11:23 AM

G7 leaders to discuss coronavirus spread on March 16: Abe

TEHRAN, Mar. 16 (MNA) – The leaders of G7 countries will hold a teleconference on March 16 to discuss the spread of the novel coronavirus in the world, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday at the debates in the country's parliament.

"I have recently held telephone talks with the leaders of the United States, France and the United Kingdom. Today the heads of the G7 countries will hold a teleconference at 11pm [local time]," Abe said. "I hope that we will discuss measures on how to unite in the fight against the virus spread," he added, according to TASS.

The Chinese authorities registered an outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the city of Wuhan. 157 countries have been grappling with the outbreak since December. The biggest foci are Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Germany, France, the US, Switzerland, the UK, and Norway. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Outside of China, most cases of the new coronavirus were reported in South Korea, Iran and Italy.

According to the latest reports, the total number of coronavirus cases worldwide has hit 169,610 with 6,518 deaths as of Tuesday.

MNA/TASS

News ID 156772