Covid-19: World Health Organisation expects number of global coronavirus cases to reach one million
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said that WHO, Unicef and the International Federation of the Red Cross are calling for countries to provide free public hand hygiene stations in areas without access to water and sanitiser, in order to prevent further spread of the virus.
The World Health Organisation’s director general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said during a media briefing on 2 April, that they expect to reach one million confirmed coronavirus cases globally in the next day or two and more than 50 000 deaths.
Ghebreyesus said, “This virus, which was unknown to us three months ago, has exposed the weaknesses and inequities in our health systems and societies, our lack of preparedness, and the gaps in our supply chains and other essential systems. We have to prepare our health systems for large numbers of cases, even as we maintain essential health services.”
He said that WHO, Unicef and the International Federation of the Red Cross are calling for countries to provide free public hand hygiene stations in areas without access to water and sanitiser, in order to prevent further spread of the virus.
“We are already seeing the economic and social effects of this pandemic in high-income countries. In poor communities, those effects could be even more severe and long-lasting. We are calling on governments to provide a social safety net, so that vulnerable people have food and other essentials during this crisis. ”
As of 2 April, there have been just over 964 000 cases of coronavirus and just over 49 000 deaths across the world.
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