World Health Organization (WHO) officials on March 11 expressed their gratitude to China for offering a helping hand to other countries dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak and also urged nations to take aggressive action to contain it.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, expressed his appreciation to China for cooperating with health authorities to distribute their limited surplus to hard-hit countries at a press conference in the organization's headquarters in Geneva.

At the same press conference, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the COVID-19 outbreak can be characterized as a "pandemic," as the virus has increasingly spread worldwide.