COVID-19 cases surging exponentially, WHO warns

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned COVID-19 cases were surging exponentially as it urged people to respect measures proven to rein in the virus.

 

The organisation pointed out that after cases and deaths declined at the beginning of the year, the global situation had worsened dramatically in recent weeks.

 

The WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, told a news conference the world is now in a critical point as the pandemic is growing.

 

"In the seventh week in a row, we've had more than 4.4 million cases in the last week...If you compare that to a year ago, we had about 500,000 cases being reported per week...This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic where we have proven control measures," she suggested.  

 

The novel coronavirus has killed 2.94 million of the approximately 136 million people infected since it first surfaced in China in late 2019.