With COVID-19 cases in Latin America and South Asia curving up, the World Health Organization has warned that the virus continues to threaten several countries.
Brazil is the second country to record more than 50,000 coronavirus deaths after the United States. Pakistan and India continue to report a higher number infections. The infectious disease is intensifying a toll on the people in the two heavily populated countries with hundreds of millions without access to adequate healthcare.
Last Thursday 150,000 new cases of the disease were reported on Thursday: the highest single daily total so far, the WHO said.
Most of the cases in the last few weeks have been in the Americas, though “large numbers” came from South Asia and the Middle East.
“The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists.
“But the virus is still spreading fast, it’s still deadly, and most people are still susceptible.”
Globally, there were nearly 3.4 million cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, including more than 450,000 deaths.
Tedros repeated his call for countries and people to remain vigilant against the disease, and to continue efforts focused on containing the disease, including though testing and contact tracing.
