The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating and the United States is becoming a central focus due to the rapid spread of infections that occur there at a rate almost as fast as in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
“We are seeing great speed in the spread of cases in the United States,” WHO doctor and spokesperson Margaret Harris confirmed at a press conference.
The latest balance of the coronavirus pandemic worldwide indicates that almost 335,000 people are affected and 14,652 have died, but the spokeswoman warned that these numbers “will increase considerably” when the WHO updates these data in the next few hours.
In the last major epidemic outbreak in the world, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it lasted two years in which this highly infectious and contagious disease caused a total of 11,000 deaths, while the coronavirus barely circulated for three months.
FORECAST OF MORE CASES
The experts of the organization consider, from the observation of the curve of infections and deaths by coronavirus, that every day the cases will be more numerous than the previous one, “until the governments take really strong measures and that these bear fruit,” he said. the spokesperson.
“The biggest driver of the outbreak remains Europe, but also the United States, which together account for 85% of cases worldwide in the last 24 hours and of this 85%, 40% occurred in the US,” Harris said.
Despite the fact that the data shows that the coronavirus is spreading throughout the United States, President Donald Trump has indicated that he is considering lowering the measures he had dictated to stop COVID-19 due to the negative impact they are having on the economy.
However, Harris explained that “to beat the virus, countries need very aggressive measures, in particular that all suspected cases pass a diagnostic test, isolate any ill person, and find and quarantine all close contacts. .. all this is crucial. “
ACCESS TO DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
In the race against the coronavirus, diagnostic tests are a determining factor, but in which there are great disparities between countries that have the capacity to produce their own tests and those that lack the technology to do so.
The WHO has at least one central laboratory for each region of the world and while the producing countries do the validation of their own tests, those without this capacity are turning to the organization, to advise them on the quality of the tests that are in the market and they are considering buying.
Harris assured that the 1.5 million tests that the WHO has distributed in the world have allowed many countries with limited resources to create a reserve and be prepared for the arrival of the virus.
HOPE IN ITALY
Regarding the situation in Italy, where for the first time in the last two days a slight decrease in the number of infected and deceased has been reported, the spokeswoman said that it is still too early to say that this reflects a decline in the outbreak in that country.
Harris said that it will still take another three to five days to see if these data are confirmed.
More than 63,000 have contracted the coronavirus in that country and 6,007 of them have died.
Scientists have better specified the incubation period for the coronavirus and consider that it is between 3 and 12 days, so a quarantine period of 14 days is recommended for all those who have been in contact with confirmed cases.
– .
