Coronavirus cases soaring in big countries especially Brazil: WHO

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern that coronavirus cases are soaring in several major countries at the same time with “worrying increases” in Latin American countries especially Brazil.

The world recorded more than 183,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the most in a single day since the outbreak started in December, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“Certainly the numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time and across the whole world,” WHO’s top emergencies expert, Mike Ryan, told an online briefing.

He said some of that increase may be attributed to increased testing, while countries like India have enhanced testing more, but he could not believe that this is a testing phenomenon.

Global cases surpassed 9 million on Monday and many countries including the United States, China and other hard-hit countries also reporting new outbreaks.

Ryan said there had been a jump in cases in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia and Guatemala, as well as Brazil, which had passed the one million mark – second only to the United States – and reported a record 54,000 cases in the previous 24 hours.

He said the jump in Brazil cases might reflect changes in the reporting system, but added but they are still relatively low tests per population and the positivity rates for testing are still quite high.

Brazil has frequently recorded more than 1,000 deaths a day over the last month. President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticised for his handling of the crisis. The country still has no permanent health minister after losing two since April, following clashes with the president.

Ryan said he thought there had been “great upticks” in cases in a number of US states which cannot be entirely explained through just increased testing.

The WHO also said it was worried about Germany, where the reproduction rate of the virus hit 2.88, well above the maximum level of one transmission per person needed to contain the disease over the longer term.

Tedros said a lack of global leadership and unity in fighting the virus was a bigger threat than the outbreak itself and politicisation had made the pandemic worse.