MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

WHO insists virus “remains public enemy number one” and strict healthcare precautions must be complied

“Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom said

The new coronavirus pandemic raging around the globe will worsen if countries fail to adhere to strict healthcare precautions, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday.

“Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from the UN agency's headquarters in Geneva.

“If basics are not followed, the only way this pandemic is going to go - it is going to get worse and worse and worse.” Global infections stand at 13 million, with more than half a million deaths.

Tedros, whose leadership has been criticized by US President Donald Trump, said that of 230,000 new cases on Sunday, 80% were from 10 nations, and 50% from just two countries. The United States and Brazil have been worst hit.

WHO emergencies head Mike Ryan said some places in the Americas may need “limited or geographically focused lockdowns that suppress transmission in specific areas where transmission is frankly out of control”.

He urged countries not to make schools into a political football, saying schools could safely reopen once the virus had been suppressed.

A two-member WHO advance team in China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, first discovered in the city of Wuhan, is in quarantine, as per standard procedure, before beginning work with Chinese scientists, Ryan said.