More than 7.04 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 403,700 have died, as of Monday ( Jun 8).
We recorded the most in a single day so far, which is more than 136,000 new cases were reported worldwide on Sunday and nearly 75 percent of them were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia.
Thus, WHO Director- General Tedros Adhanom told in an online briefing, “More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal.”
“We need to focus now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks,” said WHO’s top emergencies expert, Dr Mike Ryan.
Ryan also said infections in central American countries, including Guatemala, were still on the rise and that they were “complex” epidemics.
Brazil is now one of the hotspots of the pandemic, with the second-highest number of confirmed cases, behind only the United States, and a death toll that last week surpassed Italy’s.
Looking at the number of positive cases, Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist said,”This is far from over.”
At least half of Singapore’s newly discovered coronavirus cases show no symptoms, the co-head of the government’s virus task force told Reuters on Monday, reinforcing the city-state’s decision to ease lockdown restrictions very gradually.
Van Kerkhove said that many countries doing contact tracing had identified asymptomatic cases, but were not finding that they caused further spread of the virus, adding: “It is very rare”.
Ryan, asked about technical cooperation with the United States after President Donald Trump’s announcement 10 days ago that it was terminating its relationship with the WHO, said the WHO relies heavily on experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
“We will continue to do that until we are otherwise instructed or informed,” he added.
Source : Malaysiakini | The Star