The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attends a press conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 28, 2020.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating worldwide as many countries that reopened their economies see a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said Monday.
“Although many countries have made some progress, globally, the pandemic is actually accelerating,” he said during a virtual press conference from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. “We all want this to end. We all want to get on with our lives, but the harsh reality is that this is not even close to ending.”
The virus has infected more than 10.1 million people worldwide and has killed more than 502,000 people so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 60% of daily new cases come from countries of the Americas on Sunday, according to data published by the WHO.
According to WHO data, more than 23% of the 189,077 new cases reported worldwide on Sunday come from the US Brazil was the only country in the world that reported more new cases on Sunday than the United States, according to the WHO. .
“Some countries have experienced a resurgence of cases as their economies and societies begin to reopen,” said Tedros. “Most people are still susceptible. The virus still has a lot of room to move.”
The United States is among the countries experiencing a resurgence of infection after reopening businesses and easing restrictions on large areas of the country. New cases have emerged in various states across the country, setting new records almost daily, driven primarily by outbreak expansion in the southern and western United States. Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona are just a few of the states that reported record counts of new daily cases last week.
As cases in the US have continued to rise, the average age of patients has decreased, according to state officials in Florida, Texas and elsewhere. Some state officials say this is why Covid-19 deaths have decreased even as cases increase, as the virus is more deadly in older populations. However, several health officials, including White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that deaths will increase over time, especially as younger patients infect older and more vulnerable people.
The ongoing strategy of extensively testing the virus, investigating infections, identifying people who may have been exposed, isolating infected people and improving treatment for patients will save lives, Tedros said.
“The most important intervention to break transmission chains is not necessarily high-tech and can be carried out by a wide range of professions. It is about tracking and quarantine contacts,” he said. “Six months since the virus started, it could be like a scratched disc to say exactly the same thing, but the same thing works. Test, test, isolate, quarantine cases.”
– CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.
.
