WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, today (24 Jun) noted that a total of 10 million COVID-19 cases will be reached within the next week, “a sober reminder that even as we continue research into vaccines and therapeutics, we have an urgent responsibility to do everything we can with the tools we have now to suppress transmission and save lives."
Briefing reporters from Geneva, Dr Tedros said, "In the first month of this outbreak, less than 10,000 cases were reported to WHO. In the last month, almost 4 million cases have been reported.”
The Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Michael Ryan, said, the situation in the Americas is “still evolving, not having reached its peak yet and likely to result in a sustained number of cases and continued deaths in the coming weeks."
Ryan said, “I don't think anybody wants to go back to population-wide, society-wide lockdowns, but the only way in some circumstances to avoid that now is a very, very, very aggressive investment in our capacity to detect cases, confirmed cases, quarantine contacts, and keep our communities onboard and willing, able without coercion to support clear messaging and clear instructions and requests from government, in a trusting environment. I can’t stress that enough."
Dr Tedros said, "WHO estimates that at the current rate of about 1 million new cases a week, the world needs about 620,000 cubic meters of oxygen a day, which is about 88,000 large cylinders. However, many countries are now experiencing difficulties in obtaining oxygen concentrators. 80 percent of the market is owned by just a few companies, and demand is currently outstripping supply. WHO and the UN partners are working with manufacturers across the world through a variety of private sector networks to buy oxygen concentrators for countries that need them most."
Ryan said the drug dexamethasone “reduces death rates by one fifth in people who are already on oxygen,” and Remdesivir “reduces the length of illness in a proportion of patients.” This, he said, is “not enough,” but “if we put different therapies together, different interventions together, and we deliver them in a fair and equitable way then I believe we can do much more."
According to the latest WHO situation report, more than 9.1 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 470,000 deaths have been reported thus far.
