WHO Reports Record Number Of Daily Covid-19 Infections

The World Health Organisation has reported 106,000 new cases of coronavirus marking the last 24 hours as the highest new cases reported so far.

“We still have a long way to go in this pandemic,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. “We are very concerned about rising cases in low and middle income countries.”

Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the emergency system of the WHO, said: “We will soon reach the devastating landmark of five million cases.”

The WHO currently is under fire from US President Donald Trump, who accused it of mistreating the outbreak and placing support in China, the alleged source of the Covid-19 outbreak. Despite the record amount of cases, Trump has warned he will withdraw from the WHO and withdraw funding permanently.

Tedros admitted that he received a letter from Trump, but did not have any further comments.

Tedros said he had assumed accountability and would conduct a review of the pandemic response. Member countries of the WHO requested a review in a compromise resolution this week, although the United States expressed concerns about certain aspects of the resolution.

“I said it time and time again that WHO calls for accountability more than anyone. It has to be done and when it’s done it has to be a comprehensive one,” Tedros said of the review, while giving no indication of when it would be underway.

Ryan said that these tests are usually conducted after an emergency has ended.

“I for one would prefer, right now, to get on with doing the job of an emergency response, of epidemic control, of developing and distributing vaccines, of improving our surveillance, of saving lives and distributing essential PPE to workers and finding medical oxygen for people in fragile settings, reducing the impact of this disease on refugees and migrants,” he said.

Tedros said he had been looking for other sources to finance WHO for a long time, noting that his $2.3 billion budget for the World Health Organization was “very, very low” to a medium-sized hospital in the developing world.

Ryan put fuel on the fire even further by stating that people should avoid using hydroxychloroquine malaria to treat or prevent coronavirus infection except in a clinical trial- a stance that could push Trump to the brink.

The US President claims he is taking hydroxychloroquine to avoid infection with coronavirus.

“At this stage, (neither) hydroxychloroquine nor chloroquine have been as yet found to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19 nor in the prophylaxis against coming down with the disease,” Ryan said. “In fact, the opposite, in that warnings have been issued by many authorities regarding the potential side effects of the drug.”

SOURCE: Thai PBS world

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