World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General has said that a WHO-led team of international experts has left for China following the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.

The Director General said on Twitter late on February 9 that he had "just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team for the WHO-led 2019-nCoV international expert mission to China, led by Dr Bruce Aylward," who is a Canadian epidemiologist and emergencies expert and also a "veteran of past public health emergencies." The WHO chief did not reveal any more details or the team's schedule, Xinhua reported.

Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said earlier that the WHO-coordinated team of global experts will cover clinical management, virology, vaccine, drug development, ecological investigation, animal health, epidemiology, public health and risk communication. "The team's objective is to learn from Chinese counterparts' experience in dealing with this event so that the world can learn from them," he added.