As many countries are now easing their lockdown and quarantine measures enacted to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the worst of the pandemic is yet ahead of us.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday urged countries to work together to overcome the challenges that the world is facing due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“We need global solidarity that’s cemented on generating national unity. Without national unity and global solidarity — trust us, the worst is yet ahead of us. Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand,” Tedros told the press in Geneva.
While the WHO chief did not specify how the pandemic will intensify, he stressed that the partisanship and political discourse will aggravate the global health crisis, Business Insider reported.
“It’s the political problem that may fuel further this pandemic. At the end of the day, we should know the root cause of the problem and try to address that,” Tedros underscored.
“Don’t use this virus as an opportunity to fight against each other or score political points. It’s dangerous. It’s like playing with fire.”
He went on with a warning against the perils of downplaying the threat of the disease.
“This virus is dangerous. This virus is public enemy number one. This virus is new and which has behavior of serious contagion, like flu. It’s very contagious like flu. And at the same time, it’s a very killer like SARS and MERS. It has a very dangerous combination,” he said.
According to data from the Coronavirus Resource Center at the Johns Hopkins University, the virus has afflicted almost 2.5 million people across 200 countries and killed at least 166,000 people.
