Coronavirus epidemic – a long-term global battle: WHO

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The coronavirus infections globally will cross a million within days, the head of the World Health Organization said.

“Over the past 5 weeks, we have witnessed a near exponential growth in the number of new cases, reaching almost every country, territory and area. The number of deaths has more than doubled in the past week. In the next few days we will reach 1 million confirmed cases, and 50 thousand deaths, “ WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the media briefing on COVID-19  on Wednesday (  1 April 2020 ).

Confirmed coronavirus infections and the death toll around the world continued upwards in recent weeks, with death of more than 48,200 people till Thursday. More than 5100 people have died in the United States, according to a tally by worldometers.info

 “While relatively lower numbers of confirmed cases have been reported from Africa, and from Central and South America, we realize that COVID-19 could have serious social, economic and political consequences for these regions. It is critical that we ensure these countries are well equipped to detect, test, isolate and treat cases, and identify contacts – I am encouraged to see that this is occurring in many countries, despite limited resources, “WHO Chief said.

Many countries are asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement, which can help to limit transmission of the virus, but can have unintended consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable people.

He has urged the governments to put in place social welfare measures to ensure vulnerable people have food and other life essentials during this crisis.

“Many developing countries will struggle to implement social welfare programs. Debt relief is essential to enable them to take care of their people and avoid economic collapse for those countries.”

WHO is working hard with researchers all over the world to generate the evidence about which medicines are most effective for treating COVID-19.

Similarly, the coronavirus epidemic is “far from over” in the Asia-Pacific region, and current measures to curb the spread of the virus are buying time for countries to prepare for large-scale community transmissions, Takeshi Kasai, regional director for the western Pacific at the World Health Organizationl has said.

“The epidemic is far from over in Asia and the Pacific. This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to keep preparing for large-scale community transmission.”

His warning came as the World Bank said the economic fallout of the pandemic could drive large parts of Asia into poverty.

“Even with all the measures, the risk of transmission in the region will not go away as long as the pandemic continues”.

Meanwhile, nearly a quarter million people in the United States could die as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, US officials said.

April 2, 2020

Photo : AFP