Covid-19 hits over 5 million cases globally with record high daily rise
More than 5 million around the world have now been confirmed to have Covid-19. The World Health Organisation reported 106,000 cases globally, the highest in a single day yet, raising concerns over the spread of COVID-19 in poor nations.
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For the World Health Organisation (WHO), hitting over 5 million confirmed Covid-19 cases is “a tragic milestone”.
The WHO said that Wednesday recorded 106,000 coronavirus confirmed cases globally, “the most in a single day” since the start of the outbreak in China’s Wuhan province in December 2019.
"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."
The infection rate has been growing rapidly in Latin America, with Brazil becoming the country with the third most confirmed cases, after the United States and Russia. Peru, Mexico and Chile have also seen steady increases in infections.
Although in the infection rate is fast spreading in Brazil, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro remains bitterly opposed to lockdowns, having described them as unnecessary over a "little flu”.
Bolsonaro has refused to accept experts' advice, pressing regional governors to end stay-at-home measures.
And like United States President Donald Trump, he has promoted the use of anti-malaria drugs against the virus. The US President has said he is taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus infection despite studies showing they have no benefit and could have dangerous side effects.
Trump threatens WHO
Meanwhile, Trump accused the WHO of having mishandled the outbreak and of favouring China, where the virus is believed to have emerged late last year.
This week Trump threatened to withdraw from the WHO and permanently withhold funding.
“We have of course received the letter and we are looking into it,” Tedros said.
Dr. Michael Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies programme, expressed “concern” about any such funding cuts
He said US. funding towards the WHO emergencies program was “on the order of 100 million dollars a year” and much goes to “humanitarian health operations all over the world, in all sorts of fragile and difficult settings.”
“This is going to be a major implication for delivering essential health services to some of the most vulnerable people in the world”, Ryan declared.
Tedros said he had long been looking for other sources of funding for the WHO, saying its 2.3 billion dollar budget was "very, very small" for a global agency, around that of a medium sized hospital in the developed world.
The Trump administration demanded a review of the WHO's actions. Tedros said he was committed to accountability and would carry out a review into the response to the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution that included, among other things, a call for Tedros to start an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the WHO’s performance in responding to the pandemic “at the earliest appropriate moment”.
The ministers of Health also for equitable access to and fair distribution of all essential health technologies and products to combat the virus.
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