Without practicing the safety guidelines, the coronavirus could be a “disaster of the whole world,” says a top COVID-19 expert in China.

Dr. Zhong Nanshan, who is an epidemiologist and leading a team of experts who have been dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak in China, says he worries about what would happen to the rest of the world, if the United States does not enforce stricter lockdown procedures. He stated, “a problem of the U.S. would be a problem of the world.”

“In particular in some big country, once it cannot stop the spread, it will bring a disaster of the whole world,” he’s quoted as saying.

The pandemic began in the city of Wuhan, home to 11 million people in central China. Now more than a million people have contracted the virus with over 53,000 deaths.

Dr. Zhong said that the United States has more advanced screening methods to help identify infections, and need to have a tighter control on those who don’t show symptoms along with better prevention methods in the southern parts of the States.

Dr. Zhong also expressed his fear in seeing the virus spreading rapidly in a lot of foreign countries. As the numbers continue to increase, it creates a huge strain on medical resources. With this, he fears none of the countries will be safe. “In particular in some big country, once it cannot stop the spread, it will bring a disaster of the whole world,” he said. “None of the countries will be safe and exempted. This is what worries me the most.”

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Dr. Zhong suggested a few measures that most of us are already aware of and doing our best to enact– that is, practicing quarantine, social distancing, and wearing face masks. This past weekend, China declared they had prevented the transmission of the new disease tremendously.

America now possesses the most coronavirus cases in the world, followed by Spain, Italy, Germany and China. America has recorded over 245,000 infections and over 6,000 deaths of the coronavirus with New York state leading.