Roughly one in every ten people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus disease, Michael Ryan, head of emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO), has said
Dr Ryan was speaking to a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board focusing on COVID-19.
He said the figures vary from urban to rural, and between different groups, but that ultimately it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk”.
The pandemic will continue to evolve, he argued, but tools exist to suppress transmission and save lives.
Positive news for Africa
“Many deaths have been averted and many more lives can be protected,” Ryan said.
He was flanked by his boss, the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who minutes earlier led a moment of silence to honour victims as well as a round of applause for the health workers who have strived to save them.
Ryan said south-east Asia faces a surge in cases, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean are seeing an increase in deaths, but the situations in Africa and the Western Pacific are “rather more positive”.
“Our current best estimates tell us that about 10% of the global population may have been infected by this virus,” Ryan told representatives of member governments who make up the executive board and provide much of its funding.
Difficult period
The estimate – which would amount to more than 760 million people, based on a current world population of roughly 7.6 billion – far outstrips the number of confirmed cases as tallied by both WHO and Johns Hopkins University, now more than 35 million worldwide.
Experts have long said that the number of confirmed cases greatly underestimates the true figure.
The comments came during a special session of the executive board to consider the follow-up to its previous meeting, in May, that passed a resolution to look into the world’s — and WHO’s — response to the pandemic.
Ryan warned that the world was “now heading into a difficult period. The disease continues to spread. It is on the rise in many parts of the world.”
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online.
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#asaaseradio #TVOL
