WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom expects world to hit 20 mn COVID-19 cases this week

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation has stated that the number of people infected by the deadly coronavirus will likely reach the 20 million mark by this week. According to reports, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed his grim prediction on August 10 during a press briefing.

Grim prediction made by WHO Director-General

As per reports, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that in addition to nearing the 20 million COVID-19 infected mark the world was also slowly approaching the global death toll of 750,00 virus-related deaths. Even with these grim and worrying statistics, Tedros added that there still existed "green shoots of hope", meaning that it was possible for countries to return from the brink of disaster irrespective of the stage of virus their country or region might be experiencing.

The Director-General used the example of New Zealand as a shining example of a country that had survived the COVID-19 outbreak since New Zealand recently achieved the milestone of going 100 days without a single instance of community transmission of the coronavirus.

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In addition, Tedros also used the example of the United Kingdom and France that had recently imposed targeted lockdowns in regions experiencing COVID outbreaks as well as making mandatory to wear masks and face coverings. The Director-General of the WHO claimed that these were good examples of strategies that could be adopted by nations that were experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases and do not want to implement and nationwide lockdown again.

The deadly coronavirus which allegedly began in an illegal wet market in Wuhan, China, last year has quickly spread all over the world, the virus named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation has infected 19,947,340 people worldwide and the global death toll stands at 732,650. As per the John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre, the United States has reported a total of at least 5,071,306 positive virus cases and has a death toll of 163,252. The US currently has the highest number of reported cases in the world, making it the epicentre of the deadly virus, followed by Brazil that has reported 3,035,422 positive coronavirus cases and has a death toll of 101,049.

(Input/Image Credit AP)

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