WHO Director-General says 106,000 new cases have been reported in the past 24 hours alone.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned today that there is still a “long way to go” in relation to covid-19, saying that in the last 24 hours alone, 106,000 new cases have been reported.
“It is the highest number in a single day since the outbreak began. And almost two-thirds of these cases have been reported in just four countries,” he said at an online press conference from the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that WHO is particularly concerned with the increase in cases in low- and middle-income countries, then stressing the importance of ensuring that health systems continue to function.
At the press conference, the official also pointed out that covid-19, a disease caused by a new coronavirus, is not the only crisis facing the world, but another one of climate change, giving as an example the cyclone Amphan, “one of the largest of the past decades “and that is reaching India and Bangladesh.
And in a more optimistic perspective he said that one of the lessons that covid-19 brought was that “health is not a cost, it is an investment”.
At a press conference on covid-19 the day after the end of the World Health Assembly, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus referred to the event, “productive” and “unprecedented solidarity”, but not to the letter that the President of the States United also sent to WHO on Tuesday, giving a period of 30 days for “significant improvements” in the organization, otherwise it would definitely end the country’s contribution to WHO.
Asked several times by journalists about the letter, the WHO’s top official always replied: “We received the letter and we are analyzing it”.
The director general was also unclear about how to close the gap if the United States fails to contribute to the organization, saying that today WHO is no longer so dependent on country contributions. However, Michael Ryan, director for emergencies, said that this contribution went directly to emergency programs and the lack of it “will have a negative implication”.
Regarding the independent investigation into the WHO response to covid-19, decided at the World Health Assembly, the director-general said that it will be done as soon as possible and when “conditions permit”.
And he later pointed out that an independent assessment has already been carried out, covering the months from January to April.
At the press conference, in response to journalists, Michael Ryan also warned that drugs such as chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine have so far not been identified as effective, and Maria Van Kerkhove, who directs the response to the disease, said that there are currently more than 120 vaccines to be tested, some of them already in people.
Since the new coronavirus was detected in China in December last year, the covid-19 disease pandemic has claimed more than 323,000 deaths and infected nearly 4.9 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to an agency report. news France Presse (AFP).
In Portugal, 1,263 people died from 29,660 confirmed as infected, and there are 6,452 recovered cases, according to the Directorate-General for Health.
