PARIS/GENEVA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide has passed 19 million, according to tally from official sources.
At least 19,000,553 cases and 712,315 deaths have now been registered.
Forty percent of cases were in the United States and Brazil, the two worst-affected countries with 4,870,367 cases (159,864 deaths) and 2,912,212 infections (98,493 deaths) respectively.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization warned against “vaccine nationalism,” saying vaccine-hogging richer countries would not be safe coronavirus havens if poor nations remained exposed.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it would be in wealthier nations’ interests to ensure that any vaccines eventually produced to protect against the new coronavirus were shared globally.
“Vaccine nationalism is not good, it will not help us,” Tedros told the Aspen Security Forum in the United States, via video-link from the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.
“For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it’s a globalised world: the economies are intertwined. Part of the world or a few countries cannot be a safe haven and recover.
“The damage from COVID-19 could be less when those countries who… have the funding commit to this.”
He said the existence of the deadly respiratory disease anywhere put lives and livelihoods at risk everywhere.
“They are not giving charity to others: they are doing it for themselves, because when the rest of the world recovers and opens up, they also benefit.”
The United Nations health agency also said that multiple different types of vaccines would likely be needed to combat COVID-19.
Twenty-six candidate vaccines are in various stages of being tested on humans, with six having reached Phase 3 wider levels of clinical trials.
US President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of being a “puppet” of China and mismanaging its handling of the global pandemic.
Washington last month handed in its 12-month notice to leave the WHO, depriving the UN organisation of its biggest donor.
Tedros said the biggest “problem” with the US departure was “not about the money” but the fracture in international solidarity in fighting the virus.
“We hope the US will reconsider its position,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
