#WHO fears coronavirus pandemic ‘not even close to being over’

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a briefing that the world should brace for the continued spread of the deadly virus, which has already infected more than 10 million people worldwide and killed more than 500,000 over the past six months, CBS News said.

“Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world — and our lives — would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus,” he said.

“We all want this to be over,” Ghebreyesus added. “We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over. Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move.”

Ghebreyesus also said the global health agency would send a team to Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated, in an attempt to identify the cause of the pandemic.

An aerial picture taken with a drone shows bodies of victims who died of coronavirus, during a burial procession by the Iraqi Shiite group Imam Ali Brigades at a cemetery in the holy city of Najaf, southern Iraq.

EPA

An aerial view of the Parque Taruma cemetery, amid the coronavirus outbreak in Manaus, Brazil

REUTERS

Health workers pose for photographs as they celebrate the end of activities inside the Campaign Hospital of the Pacaembu stadium, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

EPA

People walk on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Florida.

AFP via Getty Images

People queue waiting for a meal offered by volunteers, amid the coronavirus pandemic in Ita, Paraguay.

AFP via Getty Images

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is seen on a screen during a video hearing on EU strategy for coronavirus by the European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health in Brussels, Belgium.

EPA

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

REUTERS

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“We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started,” he said. “We will be sending a team next week to China to prepare for that.”

According to Johns Hopkins University, the US accounts for about one-quarter of the global COVID-19 cases and deaths.

With Post wires