WHO Warns Many Countries Still Lack Adequate Virus Testing
The World Health Organization on Friday warned that the coronavirus pandemic is “not going away” and may still have “a long way to burn in our society”, as countries across the world experience spikes in new cases.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme Dr. Michael Ryan said that the organization was adding “1.82 million cases ” to the global case count and “an average somewhere between 40 and 50,000 deaths” every week.
Ryan said while countries can be optimistic that deaths from COVID-19 had fallen, the international community should not consider “50,000 deaths a week as an acceptable number”.
He said that even though cases and deaths caused by the new coronavirus were “flat at a global level”, rises in other parts of the world were still concerning.
He also said certain countries could not be measuring significant rises because of a lack of testing.
Ryan’s comments came as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged international communities to prepare for other similar pandemics once the new coronavirus crisis has come to an end.
Tedros said the organization has noted a “recurring pattern” of money being spent on outbreaks “when they are in full flow”, but none to “prevent the next outbreak”.
Urging countries to invest in preparedness, Tedros said: “This isn’t charity. It’s an investment in our collective future.”
The Director-General also blamed a lack of “global solidarity” for the severity of the outbreak, saying that “major powers are not working together”, and that in order to tackle the pandemic global communities would need to work together.
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