More than 4,300 people have died globally after contracting COVID-19, the prevalent strain of coronavirus, and there have been over 121,500 confirmed infections.
There have been more then 3,000 deaths in China, the epicentre of the outbreak.
And in Italy, the second worst affected country worldwide, the number of dead in the most severely hit region of Lombardy has reportedly risen from 468 to 617 in a day.
According to the WHO website, a pandemic is defined as the worldwide spread of a new disease.
It can also refer to a disease which is prevalent over a whole country.
In contrast to a pandemic, an epidemic refers to the spread of illness in a “community or region…clearly in excess of normal expectancy”.