COVID-19 Pandemic is Accelerating, Virus Still Spreading Fast, WHO Head Says

According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), 8.33 million cases of COVID-19 have been registered worldwide, while 449,182 people have died from the disease in 216 countries and territories.

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating and the virus is still spreading fast, Director-General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

The WHO chief also noted that more than 150,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the organisation on 18 June, with half of those cases registered in the Americas – although South Asia and the Middle East also registered large daily rises.

​"The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies. But the virus is still spreading fast, it’s still deadly and most people are still susceptible", Tedros said.

"The pandemic is accelerating.

More than 150K new cases of #COVID19 were reported to WHO yesterday – the most in a single day so far.

Almost half of those cases were reported from the Americas, with large numbers also being reported from South Asia & the Middle East"-@DrTedros

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 19, 2020

According to Tedros, the WHO is calling on all countries and all people to "exercise extreme vigilance and continue maintaining (social) distance from others".

"We continue to call on all countries to focus on the basics:

-find
-isolate
-test and
-care for every case.

Trace and quarantine every contact"-@DrTedros #COVID19

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 19, 2020

In the meantime, the search for a vaccine against the coronavirus continues all over the world.

A COVID-19 vaccine was tested on 18 volunteers in a Russian hospital, they have not reported any side effects or complained about their health so far, the Russian Defence Ministry said on 18 June.

Prior to this, German biopharmaceutical company CureVac announced that it had received permission to conduct the first stage of clinical trials for its vaccine against COVID-19 from the Belgian and German authorities.

The first human trials of a vaccine against COVID-19 produced by Japanese researchers will commence on 30 June, according to Osaka prefecture.

The Trump administration last month Operation Warp Speed, a joint project of the Health and Defence Departments, which aims to deliver 300 million doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.

On 11 March, the WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a pandemic.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard, the global case tally now stands at 8.5 million, while the death toll is at 454,380.