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Coronavirus infections in India topped five million on Wednesday, as a WHO envoy warned that the pandemic “is still in the beginning.”
Global cases are fast approaching 30 million, with more than 930,000 known deaths from Covid-19, the devastated global economy and nations struggling to contain the outbreaks.
India, home to 1.3 billion people, has recently reported some of the highest daily jumps in cases in the world, as a special envoy for the World Health Organization described the global pandemic situation as “horrible” and “grotesque”.
“It is much worse than science fiction about pandemics,” David Nabarro told British MPs on Tuesday.
“This is really serious, we’re not even in the middle yet. We’re still at the beginning.”
The spread of the virus has accelerated in some of the most populated parts of the world, such as India, where the last million infections were detected in just 11 days.
And some experts have warned that the total number of cases could be much higher in the vast nation, which has been facilitating one of the world’s tightest lockdowns recently despite the surge to help its faltering economy.
The relaxation of many restrictions “sent the wrong signal to people that we may have things reasonably under control and now the economy has priority,” said K. Srinath Reddy, director of the health charity for the Public Health Foundation of India.
“The virus is now infecting more people and penetrating deeper into smaller towns.”
The United States remains the worst-affected nation in the world in terms of infections and deaths, and President Donald Trump is under intense pressure for his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The Republican leader said Tuesday that a vaccine could be available within a month, an acceleration even from his own optimistic predictions.
“We’re just weeks away from getting it, you know, it could be three weeks, four weeks,” Trump said during a city hall event broadcast on ABC News.
But experts worry that world-renowned US institutions responsible for overseeing the approval and distribution of vaccines have been increasingly compromised by political pressure, and shortcuts may be taken to preparing one ahead of the US presidential election. November.
There was also a bullish claim earlier this week from China, where the virus first appeared late last year, and an official told state media that a vaccine developed in China could be ready for the public starting in November. .
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Tuesday that the country aims to achieve herd immunity through a voluntary coronavirus vaccine that is expected to be widely available by mid-2021.
Many European countries had started easing their restrictions after largely controlling the outbreaks, but are again facing worrying spikes in infections.
Denmark announced new restrictions on Tuesday, including shorter hours for bars and restaurants, new mask requirements and reduced crowds at soccer matches.
Turning to Europe, WHO’s emergency director Michael Ryan warned that it was time to “stop looking for unicorns” and make tough decisions to protect the most vulnerable with a potentially deadly winter looming.
That came as airlines increased pressure on the European Union to coordinate measures against the virus, demanding an end to quarantine “chaos” and access to reliable and rapid tests.
Airlines have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, as travel was severely restricted to control the virus. The UN said Tuesday that the pandemic cost the global tourism sector $ 460 billion in the first six months of 2020.
The economic pain is even more acute in the poorest parts of the world, such as Algeria, where the wine industry illustrates the devastation suffered by companies during the virus lockdown, with livelihoods hanging by a thread.
“We cannot bear this,” lamented winemaker Dahmane Hamamouche.
If the crisis “continues for more than one or two more months, we will not be able to hold out … we are already having difficulty paying wages.”
bur-qan / rbu
