Geneva
“Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from the UN agency’s headquarters in Geneva. “If basics are not followed, the only way this pandemic is going to go — it is going to get worse and worse and worse.”
Global infections stand at 13 million, according to a Reuters tally, with more than half a million deaths. Tedros, whose leadership has been heavily criticised by US President Donald Trump, said that of 230,000 new cases on Sunday, 80% were from 10 nations, and 50% from just two countries. The United States and Brazil are the countries worst hit.
“There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future … There is a lot to be concerned about,” Tedros added, in some of his strongest comments of recent weeks. Tedros said the WHO had still not received formal notification of the US pullout announced by Trump. The US president says the WHO pandered to China, where the Covid-19 disease was first detected, at the start of the crisis.
Trump, who wore a protective face mask for the first time in public at the weekend, has himself been accused by political opponents of not taking the coronavirus seriously enough, something he denies. A WHO advance team has gone to China to investigate the origins of the new coronavirus, first discovered in the city of Wuhan. The team’s members are in quarantine, as per standard procedure, before they begin work with Chinese scientists, WHO emergencies head Mike Ryan said.
Two WHO experts have arrived in China for cooperation on researching the origin of the COVID-19 virus, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday. After consultation between the two sides, the Chinese government had agreed that the World Health Organization would send experts to Beijing to exchange ideas with Chinese counterparts on science-based cooperation in novel coronavirus origin-tracing, Hua told a press briefing.
Kuwait on Monday reported 614 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 55,508 and the death toll to 393, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Currently, 9,759 patients are receiving treatment, including 148 in ICU, the statement added. The ministry also announced the recovery of 746 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 45,356.
Damascus — Three Syrians died on Monday from the COVID-19 infection, raising the death toll to 19, the state news agency SANA reported.
Meanwhile, the health ministry reported 23 new coronavirus cases in the government-controlled areas, bringing the overall number of infections to 417, including 136 recoveries.
Kuala Lumpur — Malaysia reported seven new COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry said on Monday, bringing the national total to 8,725.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement that six of the new infections are imported and the other one is a local transmission.
Tokyo — The Tokyo metropolitan government confirmed 119 new COVID-19 infections in the capital on Monday with the number of daily cases dropping below the 200-mark for the first time in five days.
The latest figure comes on the heels of 206 cases recorded in Tokyo the previous day, which marked a prolonged period of daily cases above 200, with a record 243 single-day infections on Friday.
Seoul — Eleven more U.S. soldiers in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday. The USFK said in a statement that 11 USFK service members were confirmed with the virus after arriving in South Korea, noting that all individuals tested positive on their first mandatory COVID-19 test prior to entering quarantine.
Tegucigalpa — Honduras will extend the curfew for another week in an effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the security ministry said on Sunday. Honduras first imposed a curfew in March and has extended it several times to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.— Reuters
