Global coronavirus infections topped nine million as the World Health Organization warned the pandemic was accelerating and Saudi Arabia announced it would scale back the hajj Islamic pilgrimage next month. The total number of coronavirus cases has reached alarming heights.
Europe has steadily eased its travel lockdowns in recent weeks, and France on Monday took its biggest step back to normality by allowing millions of children to return to school.
Total coronavirus cases accelerating world over
But many parts of the world, including Latin America and South Asia, are only beginning to feel the full force of the pandemic, while other regions are being hit with second waves.
“The pandemic is still accelerating,” the WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual health forum organised in the United Arab Emirates.
Tedros said the greatest threat was not the virus itself, which has now killed over 470,000 people, but “the lack of global solidarity and global leadership.”
“We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world,” he said. “The politicisation of the pandemic has exacerbated it.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is one of the leaders to have repeatedly played down the threat, comparing the virus to a “little flu” and arguing the economic impact of shutdowns is worse than the virus itself.
More than 50,000 people have been confirmed to have died from the virus in Brazil, with the true number believed to be far higher.
Brazil’s official death toll is second only to the United States, which has recorded 120,000 fatalities, and President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis has been widely criticised as erratic and chaotic.
Trump on Monday said the American toll could surpass 150,000, as two more members of his team that helped organise a controversial weekend rally for him in Oklahoma tested positive.
#BREAKING: Six members of Trump campaign team in Tulsa test positive for coronavirus ahead of rally https://t.co/7bFUNNegoW pic.twitter.com/7oOndrQo7G
— The Hill (@thehill) June 20, 2020
Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina are also coping with crises — Mexico City being forced to delay plans for a broad reopening of the economy as the country’s death toll raced past 20,000.
Dexamethasone being used in critically ill coronavirus patients
With a vaccine still far away, the WHO has called for a rapid increase in production of the steroid dexamethasone, which has been shown to have life-saving potential.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said demand had already surged after a British trial of the drug was publicized but he was confident production could be ramped up.
Some 2,000 patients were given the drug by researchers led by a team from Oxford University, and it reduced deaths by 35% among the most sickly, according to findings published last week.
“Although the data are still preliminary, the recent finding that the steroid dexamethasone has life-saving potential for critically ill COVID-19 patients gave us a much-needed reason to celebrate,” Tedros told a virtual news conference in Geneva.
“The next challenge is to increase production and rapidly and equitably distribute dexamethasone worldwide, focusing on where it is needed most.”
Hajj to be limited, while Europe lifts restrictionsÂ
Saudi Arabia said it would allow a “very limited” number of pilgrims to its annual hajj ritual, which last year drew 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world.
The hajj, a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, represents a potentially major source of contagion.
Read more: Saudi Arabia scales back Hajj amid Muslim disappointment
Authorities said a hajj only involving pilgrims already in the kingdom would be permitted.
In Europe however, countries continued to ease their restrictions.
Thousands of French people danced and partied in the streets well into Monday for an annual music festival, in the first big blowout since the lockdown.
Many felt the authorities were too lax.
“This is not what a gradual end to the lockdown looks like,” said Dr Gilbert Deray.
“I understand that the Festival of Music is something of a liberation, but did we really have to have it this year?”
Their concerns are not unfounded- the total number of coronavirus cases worldwide have been increasing steadily.
Swimming pools and cinemas also reopened while children up to the age of 15 returned to school.
In England authorities said cinemas, museums and galleries would reopen on July 4 in the next phase of easing lockdowns as infection rates there also slow.
Second wave increases total coronavirus cases
The sports world has been slowly re-emerging from the virus darkness, although for every step forward it seems to take one back.
But illustrating the persisting risks, Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa said restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people would be reimposed and cafes and shops ordered to close at 8:00 pm in Lisbon.
Australians were warned to avoid travelling to Melbourne as the country’s second-biggest city tightened restrictions over fears of an upsurge in cases.
China, Germany, South Korea and Japan are also battling new outbreaks, with some reintroducing containment measures.
Read more: Fears of second wave of coronavirus as China battles fresh outbreak
Three of the world’s top male tennis players tested positive after taking part in a tournament in the Balkans featuring world number one Novak Djokovic, raising questions over the sport’s planned return in August.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk
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