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Covid-19 is highly likely to kill more than two million people without relentless global action to combat the disease, the World Health Organization warned.
It comes as the United States crossed seven million confirmed coronavirus cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
He also said that 203,240 people have died from Covid-19 in the US, which is a world record.
The new coronavirus has killed at least 984,000 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a count from official sources compiled by AFP.
The WHO said today that the prospect of another million deaths is not unimaginable if countries and people do not come together to tackle the crisis.
“One million is a terrible number and we must reflect on that before we begin to consider a second million,” WHO emergency director Michael Ryan said at a virtual press conference.
He responded to a question from AFP, which asked whether it was unthinkable that two million people could die in the pandemic before a vaccine arrived.
But Ryan added: “Are we collectively prepared to do whatever it takes to avoid that number?
“If we don’t take those measures … yes, we will be seeing that number, and sadly much higher.
“Unless we do it all, the numbers he’s talking about are not only imaginable, but sadly and sadly very likely.”
Ryan reflected on the future challenges in financing, production and distribution of any potential Covid-19 vaccine.
“If you look at losing a million people in nine months and then just look at the reality of getting a vaccine in the next nine months, it’s a huge task for everyone involved,” he said.
Bruce Aylward, who heads ACT-Accelerator, the WHO-led global collaboration to search for a vaccine and treatments, said that people would “die unnecessarily and unacceptably” if countries and people are left in their hands until a vaccine arrives.
“We shouldn’t be waiting,” he said.
Two million deaths “should be unimaginable. And it shouldn’t be a function of whether or not we have a vaccine. It is a function of whether we, as individuals, do our part to prevent the transmission of this disease.”
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