10m infections by end of week, warns WHO

The world is on track to reach 10 million coronavirus cases within the next week, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

He said it was mentioned as a "sober reminder" that as research continues into therapeutics and vaccines, utmost efforts are needed now to suppress transmission and save lives.

Addressing journalists from Geneva during the agency’s regular press briefing, WHO chief executive said more than 9.1 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported thus far, and more than 470,000 deaths. In the last month, almost 4 million have emerged.

By contrast, he said less than 10,000 cases were reported in the first month of the outbreak.

Global shortage of oxygen equipment
As one million new cases of coronavirus are confirmed worldwide per week, the WHO warned that hospitals are facing a shortage in oxygen concentrators needed to support the breathing of Covid-19 patients suffering from respiratory distress.

"Many countries are now experiencing difficulties obtaining oxygen concentrators," Ghebreyesus said. "Demand is currently outstripping supply."

The health agency has bought 14,000 oxygen concentrators from manufacturers and plans to send them to 120 countries in coming weeks, Tedros said. A further 170,000 concentrators – worth about US$100m – will be potentially available over the next six months.

(Source: UN News/The Guardian)