World Health Organization (WHO) recommended countries on Monday to try and take more measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus. They also gave an insight into what to expect from asymptomatic corona positive patients. The pandemic has been worsening all across the globe and has peaked in central America.
On Sunday, more than 136,000 cases were reported from all across the world. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director General said that it was the highest single-day report of cases so far. With over six months of pandemic already, it is not the right time to take the foot off the pedal. He said so directing to all the countries across the world.
When asked about a question regarding China, one of the main emergency experts of WHO, Dr. Mike Ryan said that the retrospective studies of how the virus outbroke and spread can wait. WHO needs to primarily focus on what is happening right now and what can be done to prevent the second peak. He also said that Central American countries like Guatemala are still rising in the number of cases and can be termed as “complex” epidemics. Ryan also said that it is time for great concern and strong governments and international support needs to come together to support the region.
Table of Contents
Cases in Brazil keep rising
Brazil is another hotspot of coronavirus and has the second-highest number of cases. After the US, their death rate passed Italy in the last week. The national website of Brazil removed the cumulative number of deaths due to coronavirus. The Health Ministry also sowed confusion by releasing two different sets of figures in both numbers of infection and fatalities.
Ryan said that the data reported by Brazil had been detailed from the beginning. He also added that the Brazilians need to stress on the seriousness of the virus and manage risk. WHO expects communication should be transparent from their end, in order to keep the figures correct.
Asymptomatic corona positive patients might not be a threat
WHO epidemiologist, Maria van Kerkhove, said that a comprehensive approach was essential in South America. More than 7 million people have been infected across the world and around 400,000 have died. She said that the pandemic is far from over.
Around half of Singapore’s new COVID-19 cases show no symptoms as reported from the government’s virus taskforce. The city and states will ease lockdown restrictions gradually for this reason.
Maria said that several countries are following contact tracing and many have identified asymptomatic cases. However, there were very few signs of spreading the virus further. It is “very rare” that a coronavirus positive patient spreads the disease when they’re asymptomatic.
Ryan reported that WHO relies a lot on the experts of CDC and that they will continue to support and communicate with them until restricted. This comes 10 days after Donald Trump decides to terminate ties with WHO and leaves the institution questioning about their involvement.
