Covid 19 coronavirus: WHO reports a new daily world record, as cases exceed 350,000

The World Health Organization has announced a new daily record for confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, with more than 350,000 infections reported to the UN health agency on Friday.

The new daily high of 350,766 cases surpasses the record set earlier this week by nearly 12,000. That count includes more than 109,000 cases in Europe alone.

At a news conference on Friday, WHO’s emergency chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged that as Covid-19 continues to rise around the world, “there are no new answers.”

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He said that while the agency wanted countries to avoid the punishing lockdowns that have devastated economies, governments must ensure that the most vulnerable people are protected and numerous measures must be taken.

“Most of the people in the world are still susceptible to this disease,” Ryan warned.

He said countries should focus not only on restrictive measures, but also on strengthening their surveillance, testing, contact tracing systems and ensuring that populations are involved.

As the virus continues to rise in Europe and elsewhere, Ryan acknowledged that restrictive measures could be justified at some point.

British scientists reported this week that the Covid-19 outbreak is doubling every few weeks, French hospitals are running out of ICU beds, Germany may enlist the military to help contain its outbreak, and Spain declared a state of emergency in Madrid to As coronavirus cases increase.

Ryan said that lockdowns “may be unavoidable where the disease has gotten out of control again, but we should not accept that in all countries, the return of cases must be seen with an immediate return of the need for lockdown restrictions.

Globally, more than 36 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported, including more than 1 million deaths.

Experts say the count greatly understates the true number of cases.

Ryan said Monday that the WHO’s “best estimates” were that one in 10 people worldwide, or about 760 million people, may have been infected.

– AP