Two Palestinian refugees in Greece have tested positive for novel COVID-19 (coronavirus), raising fears of an unabated coronavirus outbreak among the Palestinian refugee community abroad.

Palestine's ambassador to Greece, Marwan Tubasi, said in a press release that two cases of coronavirus have been confirmed among Palestinian refugees in Greece.

Tubasi urged the Palestinian community in Greece to keep to the safety measures prescribed by the Greek authorities and the Ministry of Health in the country to preclude a further propagation of the deadly virus.

At the time of writing, the surge in the number of cases and in the number of affected countries is continuing, including in the Middle East, increasing concerns on the capacity of national health systems to respond and provide the necessary care, in particular in countries with weaker health systems.

World Health Organization (WHO) declared last Wednesday that the coronavirus outbreak spreading around the globe can now be characterized as a pandemic. WHO Director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO is "deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity" of the outbreak. 

Europe has now become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, says the WHO. More cases are now being reported in Europe every day than were reported at the height of China's epidemic, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a 13 March press briefing. There are more reported cases and deaths in Europe than the rest of the world combined, apart from China, Tedros said.

Italy, which has the largest outbreak in Europe, reported nearly 2700 new cases in the past two days.

More than 132,000 cases of COVID-19 have now been reported from 123 countries and territories, according to the WHO.