The World Health Organization said that most of the global rise in coronavirus cases is not due to increased testing.
“Some of that increase may be attributed to increased testing … but we do not believe this is a testing phenomenon,” said Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Emergencies Program. “Hospital admissions are also rising in a number of countries. Deaths are also rising. They’re not due to increased testing, per se.”
Ryan attributed the rise in cases to growing infections in heavily populated countries and to the spread of the virus globally.
“The numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time and [in] a large number of countries across the whole world,” he said.
The coronavirus has spread to every nation in the world. The only areas that have not yet reported a case are Svalbard, a North Atlantic archipelago that is part of Norway, and Jan Mayen.
On Sunday, the WHO reported an increase of 183,020 coronavirus cases globally, the biggest one-day increase yet. Brazil saw the biggest increase at 54,771, followed by the United States and India, with 36,617 and 15,400, respectively.
