WHO warns virus not yet hit its
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the coronavirus pandemic has still not reached its peak – as lockdown measures are relaxed to make international travel easier.
The director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the virus was not under control “in most of the world” and was in fact “getting worse”.
His stark message came as quarantine rules for people returning to or visiting the UK from certain countries were relaxed yesterday.
The 14-day quarantine restriction was yesterday lifted for people returning to Scotland or visiting from 39 countries with a low prevalence of Covid-19, including Germany, Norway and Malta.
Dr Ghebreyesus said the total number of cases of coronavirus worldwide had doubled in the past six weeks.
Speaking at the member state briefing on the Covid-19 pandemic evaluation, he said: “The virus has upended health systems in some of the world’s wealthiestnations,whilesome countries that have mounted a successful response have been of modest means.
“We know that when countries take a comprehensive approachbasedonfundamental public health measures – such as find, isolate, test and treat cases, and trace and quarantine contacts – the outbreak can be brought under control.
“But in most of the world the virus is not under control. It is getting worse.
“More than 11.8 million cases of Covid-19 have now been reported to WHO. More than 544,000 lives have been lost.
“And the pandemic is still accelerating. The total number of cases has doubled in the last six weeks.”
The relaxation of the quarantine rules has largely been welcomed by political figures and thetourismindustry,although Labour has criticised the government for failing to set up so-called air bridges to other countries. Shadow transport secretary Jim Mcmahon said that workers and holidaymakers were paying the price of the UK government’s failure to act.
He said: “The fact they have been unable to negotiate air bridges is an indictment of their failure to tackle the crisis at home.”
Concerns over the spread of Covid-19 caused by increased international travel comes with two WHO experts set to spend the next two days in Beijing to lay the groundwork for a larger mission to investigate the origins of the pandemic.
One animal health expert and one epidemiologist during their visit to the Chinese capital today and tomorrow will work to fix the “scope and terms of reference” for the future mission aimed at learning how the virus jumped from animals to humans, the agency’s statement said yesterday.
Scientists believe the virus may have originated in bats, then was transmitted through anothermammalsuchasacivet cat or an armadillo-like pangolin.
They then believe the virus was passed on to people at a fresh food market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
In an effort to block future outbreaks, China has cracked down on the trade in wildlife and closed some wet markets.
Authorities in the country have also enforced strict containment measures that appear to have virtually stopped new local infections.
The WHO mission is politically sensitive, with the US, the top funder of the United Nations body, moving to cut ties with it over allegations the agency mishandled the outbreak and is biased toward China.
It was confirmed on Tuesday that US president Donald Trump had notified the UN and the US Congress that he plans to withdraw the country from WHO.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, confirmed the US had notified it of its withdrawal.
Mr Trump has faced intense criticism of his own handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the US where more than three million people have tested positive for the disease.
More than 120 nations called for an investigation into the origins of the virus at the World Health Assembly in May.
China has insisted that WHO lead the investigation and for it to wait until the pandemic is brought under control.
The US, Brazil and India are continuing to see an increasing number of cases.
The last WHO coronavirusspecific mission to China was in February, after which the team’s leader, Canadian doctor Bruce Aylward, praised China’s containment efforts and information-sharing.
Canadian and American officials have since criticised him as being too lenient on China.
An investigation showed that in January, WHO officials were privately frustrated over the lack of transparency and access in China, according to internal audio recordings.
Complaints included that China delayed releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information.
Privately, top WHO leaders complained in meetings during the week of 6 January that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time.
newsdeskts@scotsman.com