Dubai (AFP)
The Covid-19 pandemic "continues to accelerate" worldwide, with "the last million cases reported in just eight days", warned on Monday the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"We know that the pandemic is much more than a health crisis, it is an economic, social and, in many countries, political crisis. Its effects will be felt over decades", he added, during of a virtual conference organized by the emirate of Dubai.
The warning of the head of the WHO comes as many countries have entered a phase of deconfinement to revive their economies.
Last week, the head of the WHO had described this new phase of "dangerous", estimating that, in spite of the need to leave the confinement, the virus continued "to spread quickly" and remained "lethal".
"It took more than three months for the first million cases to be reported, the last million cases being reported in just eight days," he said on Monday.
The WHO chief also called on governments and societies to prepare for possible future pandemics that could occur "in any country at any time and kill millions of people because we are not not prepared ".
"We do not know where or when the next pandemic will occur, but we do know that it will have a terrible impact on life and the world economy," said Tedros.
The Covid-19 pandemic has killed at least 465,300 people worldwide since China officially reported the disease's onset in December, AFP reported from official sources at 7:00 p.m. GMT .
The United States is the most affected country, with at least 119,959 deaths, followed by Brazil (50,617), the United Kingdom (42,632), Italy (34,634) and France (29,633).
The new coronavirus has infected more than a million people in Brazil, South America being the current epicenter of the pandemic with more than 20,000 dead in Mexico, more than 8,000 in Peru and more than 1,000 in Argentina.
© 2020 AFP