The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaks during a press conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
Coronavirus outbreaks in the Americas have not yet peaked, with the number of Covid-19 cases worldwide close to 10 million, the World Health Organization warned on Wednesday.
Many countries in the Americas, including North, South and Central America, still suffer from sustained community transmission, said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO emergency program, during a press conference at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. “And as such, the journey for them is, unfortunately, the pandemic of many countries in the Americas has not reached its peak.”
The number of new cases worldwide increased by 133,326 on Tuesday, according to WHO data. More than a third of those cases come from Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil and the United States, which reported a combined total of 58,583 new cases in a single day, according to the WHO.
The United States remains the most affected country in the world with more than 2.3 million cases and at least 121,279 deaths as of Wednesday, while some states continue to reopen, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. As of Tuesday, the seven-day average of daily new Covid-19 cases in the US USA It increased by more than 32% compared to a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of the Hopkins data. Cases are growing 5% or more in 30 states across the country, including Arizona, Texas, Montana, and Idaho.
On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, expressed concern when parts of the United States are beginning to see a “disturbing increase” in coronavirus infections.
While New York State is seeing a decrease in Covid-19 cases, other states are seeing an increase in cases that “reflect an increase in community spread,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy. and Infectious Diseases, during a hearing before the Chamber’s Energy and Commerce Committee. “That’s something that really worries me a lot.”
US cases increased to an average of 30,000 infections per day at the peak of the outbreak before stabilizing at around 20,000 infections per day, Fauci said. “Now we are going to go up [again]. A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections. “
“That is very problematic for me,” he said.
Public health specialists fear that a slow infection from the infection throughout the summer could lead to a massive resurgence of the virus this fall, as it sickens people simultaneously with seasonal flu. The Institute of Health Metrics and Assessment projects that there will be more than 200,000 Covid-19-related deaths in the United States by October.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged Americans this week to get a flu shot as both viruses threaten to put a “tremendous burden” on US hospitals. USA
Meanwhile, WHO is urging world leaders to be “vigilant” about social distancing measures, calling on countries not to speed up the reopening of companies.
Ryan added Wednesday that parts of the Americas have not reached a low enough transmission level “with which we can successfully exit successful measures of social distancing.”
“I would characterize the situation in the Americas in general and in Central and Latin America as still evolving,” he said. “It will likely result in a sustained number of cases and continued deaths in the coming weeks.”
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