Geneva, SWITZERLAND
New coronavirus cases had their biggest daily increase ever as the pandemic worsens globally and has yet to peak in Central America, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, urging countries to press on with efforts to contains the virus.
“More than six months into the
pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,”
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online briefing.
More than 136,000 new cases were
reported worldwide on Sunday, the most in a single day so far, he said. Nearly
75 percent of them were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and
South Asia.
In response to a question on
China, WHO’s top emergencies expert, Dr. Mike Ryan, said retrospective studies
of how the outbreak has been addressed could wait, adding: “We need to focus
now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks.”
Ryan also said infections in
central American countries including Guatemala were still on the rise, and that
they were “complex” epidemics.
“I think this is a time of great
concern,” he said, calling for strong government leadership and international
support for the region.
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.
After removing cumulative numbers
for coronavirus deaths in Brazil from a national website, the Health Ministry
sowed further confusion and controversy by releasing two contradictory sets of
figures for the latest tally of infection cases and fatalities.
Ryan said Brazil’s data had been
“extremely detailed” so far but stressed it was important for Brazilians to
understand where the virus is and how to manage risk, and that the WHO hoped
communication would be “consistent and transparent”.
Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO
epidemiologist, said that a “comprehensive approach” was essential in South
America.
More than 7 million people have
been reported infected with the coronavirus globally and over 400,000 have
died.
“This is far from over,” van
Kerkhove said.
At least half of Singapore’s
newly discovered coronavirus cases show no symptoms, the co-head of the
government’s virus taskforce 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”.
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