WHO promotes comprehensive approach to COVID-19 management

Wednesday July 1, 2020 ~ GLOBAL

~ Mary Brooke, B.Sc., editor ~ West Shore Voice News

More than 10.3 million cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO, and more than 506,000 deaths, said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today July 1 in a statement to the global community.

For the past week, the number of new reported cases has exceeded 160,000 each day.

The spread of the infection continues worldwide. In the past month, 60% of all cases so far have been reported.

“We will never get tired of saying that the best way out of this pandemic is to take a comprehensive approach,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

• Find, isolate, test and care for every case, trace and quarantine every contact, equip and train health workers and educate and empower communities to protect themselves and others.
• Not testing alone. Not physical distancing alone. Not contact tracing alone. Not masks alone. Do it all.

Countries that have adopted this comprehensive approach have suppressed transmission and saved lives, the Director-General said, adding that “flare-ups are to be expected as countries start to lift restrictions”.

“The fastest way out of this pandemic is to follow the science and do what we know works: the comprehensive approach.”

Global COVID-19 stats at June 30, 2020:

Globally at June 30 the case count for COVID-19 is 10,185,374 cases (163,865 new in the last 24 hours) with 503,862 deaths (3,946 new).

In the United States where containment of spread is still proving to be a challenge for public health, there are 2,537,636 cases (41,008 new) and 126,203 deaths (885 new).

For Canada, WHO shows 103,250 cases (218 new), and 8,522 deaths (6 new); their figures are about one day behind the figures available from the Public Health Agency of Canada which shows 104,204 cases as of June 30 (2,916 in BC) and 8,591 deaths (174 in BC).