As many countries around the world begin to lift lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic, the World Health Organization, WHO has raised a fresh alarm that the worst is yet to come.
WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made this known during a virtual news conference from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
“The worst is yet to come. We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives, but the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over. I’m sorry to say that but with this kind of environment and condition, we fear the worst. And that’s why we have to bring our acts together and fight this dangerous virus together. Although many countries have made some progress, globally, the pandemic is speeding up” he said.
The virus has infected more than 10.1 million people around the world and killed more than 502,000 people so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 60% of daily new cases came from countries in the Americas on Sunday, according to data published by the WHO.
More than 23% of the 189,077 new cases reported globally on Sunday came from the U.S., according to the WHO’s data. Brazil was the only country in the world to report more new cases on Sunday than the U.S., according to the WHO.
“Some countries have now experienced a resurgence of cases as they start to reopen their economies and societies. Most people remain susceptible. The virus still has a lot of room to move” Tedros said.
The U.S. is among the countries experiences a resurgence of infection after reopening businesses and easing restrictions across large swaths of the country. New cases have surged in several states across the nation, setting new records almost daily, driven mostly by expanding outbreaks in the American South and West. Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona are just some of the states that reported record-high counts of daily new cases last week.
