The World Health Organization confirmed on Wednesday what many feared was coming: COVID-19 is now a global pandemic. The virus only took three months to reach this status.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in the organization's opening media remarks this morning: "Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over...We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus...We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear."
"In the past two weeks the number of cases outside China has increased thirteenfold and number of affected countries has tripled," Ghebreyesus told reporters in a press conference. "In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher...We're deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction."
Total Confirmed Cases: Over 125,000
Total Deaths: At least 4,600
Total Recovered: Over 67,000
What Happened Today:
U.S. health officials said that the worst is yet to come in terms of the outbreak. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that "I can say we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now." Fauci added: "We would recommend that there not be large crowds...People always say, 'Well, the flu does this, the flu does that.' The flu has a mortality rate of 0.1%. [COVID-19] has a mortality of 10 times that."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it will be providing over $560 million to states to help the response to the outbreak. " Our state, local, tribal and territorial public health partners are on the front lines of the COVID-19 response," Director Robert Redfield stated. "The action we are taking today will continue to support their efforts to increase public health capacity where it's needed most."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated on Wednesday: "Given a virus for which there is no immunity and no immunization, we have to understand that many people will be infected. The consensus among experts is that 60-70% of the population will be infected."
Tracking the Spread:
Americas: The United States-115 new cases and 1 new death, Panama-7 and 1 new death, Chile-6, Colombia-6, Canada-4, Brazil-4, Paraguay-3, Honduras-2, Mexico-1.
Europe: Italy-2,313 new cases and 196 new deaths, Spain-527 new cases and 18 new deaths, France-497 new cases and 15 new deaths, Germany-343 new cases and 1 new death, Norway-213, Denmark-180, Switzerland-155 new cases and 1 new death, Sweden-145 new cases and 1 new death, Netherlands-121 new cases and 1 new death, United Kingdom-73 new cases and 2 new deaths, Austria-64, Belgium-47 new cases and 3 new deaths, Czechia-28, Slovenia-23, Finland-19, Portugal-18, Romania- 15, Greece-10, Poland-9, Ireland-9 new cases and 1 new death, Iceland-4, Estonia-3, Slovakia-3, Albania-2 new cases and 1 new death, Latvia-2, Bulgaria-1 new case and 1 new death, Hungary-1, Georgia-1, Croatia-1, Malta-1, Réunion-1.
Middle East: Iran-958 new cases and 63 new deaths, Qatar-238, Bahrain-85, Lebanon- 9 new cases and 1 new death, Serbia-7, Israel-4, Cyprus-4, Kuwait-3, Afghanistan-2, Palestine-1, Saudi Arabia-1.
Asia: South Korea- 242 new cases, China-36 new cases and 22 new deaths, Japan-52 new cases and 3 new deaths, Malaysia-20, Philippines-16, Singapore-12, Indonesia-7 new cases and 1 new death, Thailand-6, Hong Kong-5, Brunei-5, Vietnam-4, Maldives-2, Taiwan-1, Ski Lanka-1.
Africa: South Africa-6, Morocco-2, Egypt-1, Tunisia-1.
Oceania: Australia- 11
