Geneva - New coronavirus cases had their
biggest daily increase ever as the pandemic worsens globally and
has yet to peak in central America, the World Health
Organization (WHO) said on Monday, urging countries to press on
with efforts to contains the virus.
"More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the
time for any country to take its foot off the pedal," WHO
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online
briefing.
More than 136,000 new cases were reported worldwide on
Sunday, the most in a single day so far, he said. Nearly 75% of
them were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and
South Asia.
In response to a question on China, WHO's top emergencies
expert, Dr. Mike Ryan, said retrospective studies of how the
outbreak has been addressed could wait, adding: "We need to
focus now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks."
Ryan also said infections in central American countries
including Guatemala were still on the rise, and that they were
"complex" epidemics.
"I think this is a time of great concern," he said, calling
for strong government leadership and international support for
the region.
Brazil is now one of the hotspots of the pandemic, with the
second highest number of confirmed cases, behind only the United
States, and a death toll that last week surpassed Italy's.
After removing cumulative numbers for coronavirus deaths in
Brazil from a national website, the Health Ministry sowed
further confusion and controversy by releasing two contradictory
sets of figures for the latest tally of infection cases and
fatalities.
Ryan said Brazil's data had been "extremely detailed" so far
but stressed it was important for Brazilians to understand where
the virus is and how to manage risk, and that the WHO hoped
communication would be "consistent and transparent".
Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, said that a
"comprehensive approach" was essential in South America.
More than 7 million people have been reported infected with
the coronavirus globally and over 400,000 have died.
"This is far from over," van Kerkhove said.
At least half of Singapore's newly discovered coronavirus
cases show no symptoms, the co-head of the government's virus
taskforce told Reuters on Monday, reinforcing the city-state's
decision to ease lockdown restrictions very gradually.
Van Kerkhove said that many countries doing contact tracing
had identified asymptomatic cases but were not finding that they
caused further spread of the virus, adding: "It is very rare".
Ryan, asked about technical cooperation with the United
States after President Donald Trump's announcement 10 days ago
that it was terminating its relationship with the WHO, said the
WHO relies heavily on experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
"We will continue to do that until we are otherwise
instructed or informed," he added.