WHO warns number of global Covid-19 cases to reach 1 million
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The head of the World Health Organization says confirmed cases of coronavirus infection will reach one million, with 50,000 deaths, in the next few days.
Over the past five weeks, we have witnessed a near exponential growth in the number of new cases, reaching almost every country, territory and area,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing at the organization’s Geneva headquarters Wednesday.
Three months have passed since Chinese authorities first reported the new coronavirus to the organization.
Tedros said he is deeply concerned about the rapid escalation and global spread of infections.
He called on countries to take measures to ensure vulnerable people have food and other life essentials as many countries are asking people to stay at home.
China began on Wednesday to release the number of people who have tested positive but shown no symptoms. But it has not disclosed how many such people have been confirmed since the start of the outbreak.
During the news conference, many reporters asked questions about China’s stance.
The technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that under the WHO’s definition, those who tested positive are counted as coronavirus cases regardless of the existence of symptoms.
But she did not comment on whether China’s way of compiling statistics is appropriate.
The last time the WHO declared a pandemic was during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak. The 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, which is also a coronavirus, was contained enough to avoid that classification.
Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 885,000 people and has killed at least 44,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
