GENEVA — The world is grateful for the efforts of health workers in China, especially in Hubei, to discover how to best treat infected patients and prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Feb 9.

"I am in awe of the thousands of health workers in China, especially in Hubei, who are caring for patients and gathering data on 2019 novel coronavirus for scientific analysis, while under immense pressure," said Dr. Tedros on Twitter.

"The world is grateful for your efforts to discover how to best treat (patients) and prevent the spread of the virus," he said.

Tedros underlined that experts in medicine and science are working across borders to lead a data-driven response to the novel coronavirus.

"From China's early sharing of genome sequencing data to our work at WHO to debunk myths, we are rapidly collecting, analyzing and sharing information to keep the world safe," he added.