世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞在3月11日的记者会上宣布，世卫组织经过疫情评估后认为新冠肺炎已构成“全球性流行病”，但这次大流行与以往任何一次都不同，是可以控制的。全世界应当一起努力，保持冷静，采取恰当措施，保护人民安全。

The world is now in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic, the director general of the World Health Organization has said, as he expressed deep concern about “alarming levels of inaction” in the fight against the spread of the disease.

世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞表示，新冠肺炎已构成“全球性流行病”。他对在抗击新冠肺炎传播方面“令人震惊的不作为”深表关注。

In the past two weeks, the number of cases outside China has increased 13-fold, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the number of affected countries has tripled. There are 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 people have lost their lives.

谭德塞博士说，过去两周，中国以外的病例数量增加了13倍，受影响国家和地区的数量增至三倍。全球114个国家和地区的确诊病例达到11.8万，4291人因此丧生。

“Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospital,” Tedros said at a briefing in Geneva. “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the many cases, the many deaths and the number of affected countries climb even higher.

谭德塞在日内瓦的一次新闻发布会上说：“还有数千人在医院里苦苦求生。在未来的几天和几周内，我们预计确诊病例、死亡病例和受影响国家和地区数量都会增加。”

"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.

“世卫组织一直在不间断地评估新冠肺炎疫情，我们对令人震惊的扩散和严重程度以及不作为深感关切。”

We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.

“因此，我们经过疫情评估后认为新冠肺炎已成为大流行。”

Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.

“‘大流行’一词不应随便使用。如果滥用，会导致无端的恐慌，或者不合理地接受‘抗疫战斗已结束’，导致不必要的痛苦和死亡。”

Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do.

“将新冠肺炎疫情称为大流行并不会改变世卫组织对新冠病毒构成的威胁的评估。它不会改变世卫组织的措施，也不会改变各国应采取的措施。”

We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.

“我们以前从未见过冠状病毒引发的大流行病，这还是第一次。”

And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time."

“同时，我们以前也从未见过一场可以得到控制的大流行病。”

As the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) explains on its website, “an epidemic occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people.” Usually, what precedes an epidemic is an outbreak, or “a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease.” An outbreak can affect a single community or several countries, but it’s on a much smaller scale than an epidemic.

感染控制和流行病学专业人员协会在网站上解释道：“当一种传染性疾病迅速传播给许多人时，就被称为epidemic。”通常，epidemic发生之前会有outbreak（疾病暴发），即“某种疾病案例的突然增加”。Outbreak可能影响到单个社区或几个国家，但规模比epidemic小得多。

If an epidemic can’t be contained and keeps expanding its reach, public health officials might start calling it a pandemic, which means it’s affected enough people in different areas of the world to be considered a global outbreak. In short, a pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It infects more people, causes more deaths, and can also have widespread social and economic repercussions.

如果一场epidemic不能被控制住，还在不断蔓延，公共卫生官员可能就要开始称之为pandemic，意思是这场流行病已经影响到世界不同地区足够多的人，到了全球性暴发的程度。简而言之，pandemic就是全球性的流行病。Pandemic感染的人更多，导致的死亡人数更多，还可能对社会和经济造成广泛的影响。

This pandemic was unlike any others in that it could be controlled, he said. The experience in China and South Korea, where the numbers of cases are falling, showed it was possible to turn things around. But many countries were not doing what was necessary.

谭德塞说，这次大流行病与以往任何一次都不同，是可以控制的。中国和韩国的经验表明，疫情是有可能扭转的，这两个国家的病例数量正在下降。但许多国家没有采取必要的措施。

“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” he said.

他说：“我们每天都呼吁各国积极采取紧急行动。我们已经响亮而明确地敲响了警钟。”

Ghebreyesus was keen to stress that it was not too late to control the outbreak. The majority of cases – 90% of the 118,000 – are in just four countries: Italy, Iran, South Korea and China. “All countries can still change the course of this pandemic,” he said. He called on all countries to detect, test, treat, isolate, track contacts and mobilise their people in response to the pandemic.

谭德塞特别强调指出，现在控制疫情还为时不晚。在11.8万确诊病例中，90%的病例发生在四个国家：意大利、伊朗、韩国和中国。他说：“所有国家仍然可以改变疫情进程。”他呼吁所有国家排查、检测、治疗、隔离、追踪密切接触者并动员本国人民应对疫情。

“Some countries are struggling with a lack of capacity, some countries are struggling with a lack of resources, some countries are struggling with a lack of resolve,” he said.

他说：“一些国家在努力应对能力不足的问题，一些国家在努力应对资源匮乏的问题，还有一些国家在努力应对缺乏决心的问题。”

Asked which countries were failing to do enough, he and WHO’s director of emergencies, Dr Michael Ryan, refused to be specific. “You know who you are,” said Ryan. The WHO would not criticise its member states in public. But, he said, it was not enough to limit testing to small numbers of people who fitted risk criteria that might be out of date – people over a certain age with a history of travel to China, for instance.

当被问及哪些国家做得不够时，他和世卫组织应急行动司司长迈克尔·瑞安博士拒绝详细说明。瑞安说：“这些国家自己很清楚。”世界卫生组织不会公开批评其成员国。但他表示，将检测局限于一小部分符合风险标准的人是不够的，比如，超过一定年龄、有过中国旅行史的人等这些标准可能已经过时了。

Some countries had not established sufficient capacity for isolating people, he said. Other countries were too willing to give up on contact tracing too soon, which could help slow the spread. Some countries were not communicating well with their people, giving them the information they need to keep themselves and others safe.

他说，一些国家还没有足够的能力实施隔离措施。还有些国家总想过早放弃追踪密切接触者，而追踪密切接触者有助于减缓传播。一些国家没有很好地与本国民众进行沟通，向他们提供所需信息，以保证其自身和他人的安全。

The WHO warning came as the death toll from the virus in Italy rose by 31% in 24 hours to 827, and the government there began considering imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions of euros in financial relief to cushion against the economic shock.

世卫组织发出警告之际，意大利新冠肺炎死亡病例在24小时内增加了31%，达到827人，该国政府开始考虑对日常生活施加更严格的限制，并宣布了数十亿欧元的财政救助，以缓解经济受到的冲击。

cushion [ˈkʊʃn]： vt.缓和…的冲击

In Iran, by far the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, the senior vice-president and two other cabinet ministers were reported to have been diagnosed with Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus.

到目前为止，伊朗是中东地区疫情最严重的国家。据报道，伊朗第一副总统和另外两名内阁成员已确诊感染了由新冠病毒引起的新冠肺炎。