100 days and running: Coronavirus has only got deadlier

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) April 9 marked the 100th day of the first cases of new coronavirus being reported, which began its deadly journey from a seafood market in Wuhan in China and brought the entire world to its knees.

In a tweet on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Today marks 100 days since @WHO was notified of the first cases of what we now call #COVID19. Over 1.3M people have been infected & almost 80K have lost their lives. This pandemic is much more than a health crisis. It requires a whole-of government & society response.”

The deadly respiratory disease came to light in early January and on Thursday, it had infected over 1.3 million people worldwide, with the US on the top.

The Director-General said that the WHO has been working day and night to fight COVID-19 in five key areas. Supporting countries to prepare & respond, providing accurate information & fighting the infodemic, ensuring supply of medical equipment for #healthworkers, training & mobilizing health workers and accelerating R&D.

“Our focus has been on working with countries & partners to bring the world together to confront this common threat together. We’ve been especially concerned with protecting the world’s poorest & most vulnerable, not just in the poorest countries, but in all countries,” he emphasised.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged support for the WHO after US President Donald Trump threatened to freeze American funding.

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19,” Xinhua news agency quoted Guterres as saying in a statement.

Trump on Tuesday criticized the WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and threatened to freeze US funding for it.

Again on Wednesday, Trump while addressing the White House daily briefing claimed that the WHO has gotten the pandemic “wrong”

–IANS

na/rt