World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the coronavirus pandemic is “speeding up” as the global death toll surpasses 500,000 and cases top 10 million.
Tedros addressed the pandemic from the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Monday. He warned that as COVID-19 cases continue to surge, there is still far more work that needs to be done in order to stymy the spread.
“Although many countries have made some progress, globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up,” he told reporters. “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives, but the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over.”
Almost 190,000 new cases were reported across the globe on Sunday, with nearly a quarter of those arising in the United States. As of Monday, there have been about 10.2 million confirmed cases of the virus and about 503,000 deaths worldwide, according to the latest count by Johns Hopkins University.
Despite the U.S. beginning to reopen in phases, cases there have spiked in recent days, with some states reversing course on their decisions to reopening and re-imposing restrictions to help stop hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.
“Some countries have now experienced a resurgence of cases as they start to reopen their economies and societies,” Tedros said. “Most people remain susceptible. The virus still has a lot of room to move.”
The director-general also emphasized the importance of self-isolation and contact tracing as the world faces the second half of 2020.
“The single most important intervention for breaking chains of transmission is not necessarily high-tech and can be carried out by a broad range of professionals. It’s tracing and quarantine contacts,” he said. “Six months since the virus started, it could be like a broken record to say exactly the same thing, but the same thing works. Test, test, isolate, quarantine cases.”
