WHO Reports Record Number Of COVID-19 Cases In Single Day, Warns ‘We Still Have Long Way To Go’

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The number of newly reported coronavirus cases worldwide hit a daily record this week with more than 100,000 new cases over the last 24 hours, according to a report by the World Health Organization

During a press conference Wednesday at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that the majority of new cases are coming from just four countries: Brazil, the US, Russia and India. He added that  “We still have a long way to go in this pandemic.”

The U.S. reported 45,251 new cases on Tuesday, according to the agency while Russia had the second-most reported cases Tuesday at 9,263. On Wednesday Brazil reported some 20,000 new cases, bringing it to a total of 290,000 cases, eclipsing all of the European countries which have been suffering from the pandemic.

There are now over 5 million global cases and roughly 325,000 deaths since the virus emerged in Wuhan, China, less than five months ago, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The WHO has been warning world leaders that there can be “no going back to business as usual” following the COVID-19 outbreak, which has shaken economies and wreaked havoc on nearly every country around the globe.

The agency has told countries that they will need to manage around the coronavirus for the foreseeable future as cases level off or decline in some countries, while peaking in others and resurging in areas where the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to be under control. For example, South Korea saw a significant resurgence last week despite having almost totally brought the disease under control previously.

While social distancing measures put in place in numerous countries to slow the spread of the coronavirus have been successful, the virus remains “extremely dangerous,” WHO officials  said. Current data show that “most of the world’s population remains susceptible,” they said, meaning outbreaks can easily “reignite.”