An international emergency was called at "the right time" and gave counties time to mount a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

At a press briefing, he defended the timing of announcing the emergency on 30 January this year and not earlier. Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that at the point it was declared, there still had not been a death outside China from the coronavirus.

He said the timing of the declaration gave enough time to "cut it at the bud." And added: "I think that we declared the emergency at the right time and there would have been enough time to respond."

Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "The most important thing, which is expected, is a declaration from WHO – the global declaration emergency on 30 January – and that was declared based on experts' opinion, which was drawn from all over the world, who used the criteria to recommend to me that this is already a global emergency, and that consensus led to a declaration."

He explained that when the emergency was declared by WHO, there were only 82 cases outside China and 10 in Europe.

"Actually, most of these cases were in the [same] neighborhoods and ... most of the world was still reporting no cases," Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"We triggered the highest level of emergency when the rest of the world had only 82 cases and no deaths."