This archive report was first published on 23 June 2020.
On Monday, June 22, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) sounded the alarm over a worrying increase in coronavirus cases in several major countries.
The global health body reported a record 183,000 new cases on Sunday, the highest single-day tally since the outbreak began in December 2019.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attributed the surge to the simultaneous spread of the virus in populous countries across the world.
‘Certainly the numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time and across the whole world,’ said Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert.
However, Ryan emphasized that the increase in cases cannot be solely attributed to increased testing, citing the example of India, which has seen a significant rise in cases despite increased testing.
Global cases surpassed 9 million on Monday, with the United States, China, and other hard-hit countries reporting new outbreaks.
The WHO expressed particular concern over Brazil, which has seen a record 54,000 cases in the previous 24 hours, and has passed the 1 million mark, second only to the United States.
‘There still are relatively low tests per population, and the positivity rates for testing are still quite high overall. From that perspective, we would say that this trend is not reflective of exhaustive testing, but probably under-estimating the actual number of cases,’ Ryan said.
Latin America’s largest country has frequently recorded over 1,000 deaths a day over the last month, with President Jair Bolsonaro facing criticism for his handling of the crisis.
The WHO also expressed concern over Germany, where the reproduction rate of the virus hit 2.88 on Sunday, well above the maximum level of one transmission per person needed to contain the disease.
