Asian markets fell on Friday morning as World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned that the outbreak of coronavirus could happen at any time outside of China.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Stock Exchange Index fell as well as other Asian stock indices.

“The number of diseases in the rest of the world is still very small compared with China, but this situation cannot last long,” Director General Tedros Adan Gebreisus told reporters at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday. According to Tedros, there are currently 74,675 cases of coronavirus in China, including 2,121 deaths. Outside of China, 1,076 confirmed cases in 26 countries, he added.

“The opportunity that we have now may disappear, so we must use what we have to suppress the outbreak in any country,” he said.

The number of new cases in South Korea surged to 156, which suggests there is a major risk of a second outbreak in the neighbouring to country China. Gold prices added another 1% on those risks.

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