The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to spread rapidly around the world, with over a million new cases recorded within the past week. The World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday during a press conference in Geneva that he expects the number of global cases to reach the grim milestone of 10 million by next week.
The agency also warned that the outbreaks taking place throughout North, South and Central America have yet to reach their peak due to sustained community transmissions. The W.H.O. reported that the number of globally infected increased by over 133,000 on Tuesday, with more than a third coming from outbreaks in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and the United States.
"I would characterize the situation [in the Americas] as still evolving, not having reach its peak yet, and likely to result in sustained numbers of cases and deaths in the coming weeks," said Dr. Mike Ryan, W.H.O.'s head of emergencies, during a press conference.
The coronavirus outbreak in the United States continues to develop unevenly, with some states reopening without new infection spikes, while others are increasing near the point of losing control. New cases in states like California, Florida, and Texas continue to exponentially grow, setting daily records that the southern half of the country has not seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Hospitalizations in Arizona are also touching dangerously close to their capacity limits, demonstrating that the virus is far from contained.
On Wednesday, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have jointly issued a 14-day quarantine mandate, subject to fines for noncompliance, to any traveler from states with high infections rates. The infection rate is determined by a rolling seven-day average of more than 10 cases per 100,000 residents.
"As of today, the states that are above that level are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah, and Texas," Governor Andrew Cuomo stated in a joint news conference with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. "That's as of today. The states themselves can change as the infection rate changed and we will update daily what stated are above that infection rate."
During the start of the coronavirus spread in the United States, New York, alongside New Jersey and Connecticut became the epicenter of the outbreak, prompting other states like Florida and Texas to issue mandatory 14-day quarantines.
Total Global Cases: Over 9.5 Million
Total Deaths: Over 483,000
Total Recovered: Over 5.1 Million
Money Matters
The International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) updated its World Economic Outlook on Wednesday to project a 4.9% global gross domestic product (G.D.P.) decline for 2020, a 3% drop from April's outlook. The I.M.F. also downgraded its G.D.P. forecast for 2021, now expecting a growth rate of 5.4% from the 5.8% projection made in April.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast," the I.M.F. stated in its update release.
The fund highlighted on how governments have created massive fiscal packages and other relief efforts to help reduce some of the economic impact of the pandemic, harming public finances as a result.
"The steep contraction in economic activity and fiscal revenues, along with the sizable fiscal support, has further stretched public finances, with global public debt projected to reach more than 100% of G.D.P. this year," the fund stated.