COVID-19: 10% of global population may already be infected with virus, cautions WHO

At least one in 10 people may have been infected with deadly COVID-19, leaving the vast majority of the global population vulnerable to the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert said that the Coronavirus outbreak was surging in parts of southeast Asia and that infections and fatalities were rising in parts of Europe and the eastern Mediterranean region.

Based on the current estimates, Ryan said, about 10% of the global population may have been infected by this virus, varying from country to country, putting the vast majority of the world remains at risk. He said the world is now heading into a difficult period as the disease continues to spread.

The WHO has submitted a list of experts to participate in an international mission to China to learn the origin of coronavirus, for consideration by Chinese authorities, he said.

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Impact of COVID-19 outbreak

The catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic has globally infected over 3,55,00,000 people of which nearly 10,44,000 have succumbed to the virus according to Worldometer. The pandemic has not only caused a health crisis but also caused one of the bloodiest of global economic slowdown due to the lockdowns imposed in the majority of the developed countries across the world, even as potential vaccines against the Coronavirus are still in developmental stages. 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organisation was proposing to vaccinate some people in all countries against the coronavirus, rather than all people in some countries. Speaking at a WHO executive board special session in Geneva on Monday, Tedros said that by doing this the world would be opened up faster.

"When the world is opened faster, then there will be trade and investment opportunities. So each and every country not only benefits from better health, better... I mean, ending the pandemic, but at the same time faster economic recovery," he added.

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