Geneva - The head of the World Health
Organization (WHO) voiced deep concern on Wednesday about "the
rapid escalation and global spread" of Covid-19 cases from the
new coronavirus, which has now reached 205 countries and
territories.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that
his agency, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) backed debt relief to help developing countries cope with
the pandemic's social and economic consequences.
"In the past five weeks there has been a near-exponential
growth in the number of new cases and the number of deaths has
more than doubled in the past week," Tedros told a virtual news
conference in Geneva where the UN health organization is
based.
"In the next few days we will reach 1 million confirmed
cases and 50 000 deaths worldwide," he said.
China, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged in
December, reported dwindling new infections on Wednesday and for
the first time disclosed the number of asymptomatic cases, which
could complicate how trends in the outbreak are read. Its latest
figures excluded 130 new sufferers of the highly contagious
disease who do not show symptoms, its statistics showed.
Asked about the distinction, Dr. Maria ver Kerkhove, a WHO
epidemiologist who was part of an international team who went to
China in February, said WHO's definition included
laboratory-confirmed cases "regardless of the development of
symptoms".
"From data that we have seen from China in particular, we
know that individuals who are identified, who are listed as
asymptomatic, about 75 percent of those actually go on to
develop symptoms," she said, describing them as having been in a
"pre-symptomatic phase". The new coronavirus causes the
respiratory disease Covid-19.
The outbreak continues to be driven by people who show signs
of disease including fever and cough, but it is important for
the WHO to capture that "full spectrum of illness", she added.
Tedros, referring to proposed debt relief, said: "Many
countries, developing countries cannot really support their
societies especially during lockdowns, especially those
community members who work for their daily bread. That is why we
call on the international community to have debt relief to
support those countries.
"We are proposing an expedited process to support countries
so their economies are not getting into crisis, (and) their
communities are not getting into crisis," he said.