With the total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections having reached 10 million and the death toll surpassed 500,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that “the worst is yet to come.”
“Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world and our lives would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday during a virtual briefing.
“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up,” he said.
Tedros said the masses have abandoned the guidelines but they need to recommit to the fight to save lives.
“We will need even greater stores of resilience, patience, humility and generosity in the months ahead. We have already lost so much but we cannot lose hope,” he said.
Tedros added that the pandemic has brought out the best and worst humanity, citing acts of kindness and solidarity, but also misinformation and the politicization of the virus.