On This Day - What happened 30 January 2020 AD

January 29 and 30 were devoted to written questions from senators.

Citing 7736 cases essentially in China and 82 cases abroad across 18 countries as of 30 January, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January.

While the spread between people has been confirmed, no active centres of propagation have been confirmed outside China as of 30 January.

On 30 January 2020, following confirmation of human-to-human transmission outside of China and the increase in number of cases in other countries, the WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the sixth PHEIC since the measure was first invoked during the 2009 Swine flu pandemic. Tedros clarified that the PHEIC, in this case, was "not a vote of no confidence in China", but because of the risk of global spread, especially to low- and middle-income countries without robust health systems.

Outside Mainland China, some cruise ships were quarantined after passengers developed symptoms or tested positive for 2019-nCoV. The Costa Smeralda was quarantined on 30 January off Civitavecchia in Italy, after passengers developed flu-like symptoms – the quarantine was lifted when tests for the virus came back negative. Two further ships were quarantined on 5 February: Diamond Princess in the Port of Yokohama, Japan and World Dream, which returned to Hong Kong after being refused entry to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In both cases, passengers and crew tested positive and the ships remained quarantined as of 6 February.