Thu 09 July 2020:
Total number of COVID-19 cases has surpassed 12 million but 6.5 million have recovered while death toll nears 550,000.
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More than 12 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19, and at least 548,896 have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. About 6.5 million patients have recovered. The United States and Brazil have reported the most cases and the highest death tolls.
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MSF warns of consequences after US withdrawal from WHO
The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw US membership from the World Health Organization (WHO) could have life-threatening consequences for people around the globe, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, or MSF.
“The WHO, while in need of reforms, plays a vital role in coordinating global medical research, producing evidence-based guidelines, and supporting national governments to respond to urgent public health crises,” MSF said in a statement late on Thursday.
“The COVID-19 global pandemic is certainly no time to walk away from this global health agency, of which the US is a founding member,” it added.
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Africa now has more than a half-million confirmed coronavirus cases. The continent-wide total is now over 508,000 after South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases as a new global hot spot.
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South Africa prepares 1.5 million gravesites as coronavirus cases rise
A health official in South Africa’s new coronavirus hot spot of Gauteng province says authorities are preparing over 1.5 million gravesites as confirmed cases rise, AP news agency reported.
Bandile Masuku, a medical doctor and member of the province’s executive council, said it was the public’s responsibility to make sure the gravesites were not needed.“It’s an uncomfortable discussion,” he said. Gauteng province includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.
The number of confirmed virus cases in Gauteng is now over 71,000, or 33 percent of South Africa’s cases. The country has more than 215,000 confirmed cases and is posting some of the world’s highest daily totals of newly reported cases.
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Dr Antony Fauci, the leading US infectious disease expert, says he is cautiously optimistic that a coronavirus vaccine with some degree of effectiveness will be successfully developed by the end of the year or the beginning of 2021. Cases in the US has hit three million with more than 132,000 deaths.
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