The recent ongoing corona virus pandemic is going to worsen if countries fail to adhere to strict healthcare precautions, the World Health Organization warned on Monday.
“Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from the UN agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
“If basics are not followed, the only way this pandemic is going to go – it is going to get worse and worse and worse.”
Globally almost 13 million people are infected with the virus currently and half a million deaths have occurred, according to a Reuters tally.
Tedros, whose leadership has been criticized by US President Donald Trump, said that of 230,000 new cases on Sunday, 80% were from 10 nations, and 50% from just two countries.
Currently the United States and Brazil are fighting the toughest battle to contain the spread of the virus, they are the worst hit.
Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies head, said some places in the Americas may need “limited or geographically focused lock downs that suppress transmission in specific areas where transmission is frankly out of control”.
He requested several countries to avoid manipulating schools into a political football. He believes that schools could safely reopen once the virus had been suppressed.
Tedros said that the WHO has not yet received formal indication of president Trumps announcement of withdrawal. “The US president says the WHOA two-member WHO advance team in China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, first discovered in the city of Wuhan, is in quarantine, as per standard procedure, before beginning work with Chinese scientists, “Ryan said.
Trump has been accused by his political opponents of not taking necessary measure during the initial stages of Covid-19, although he denies such accusations. He was seen to be wearing a protective face mask in public for the first time on the weekend.
