Srinagar: As COVID cases continue to rise worldwide, World Health Organization (WHO), on Sunday cautioned that the deadly virus will worsen the issues that the word is already witnessing.
In a statement issued today, the chief of the world’s biggest health organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that even though the world is engulfed with COVID outbreak, countries like Africa and other regions of the Middle East are still struggling with conflict and major humanitarian crisis.
He said that despite the fatal virus, the crisis these countries face has not dissipated at all, adding that pandemic is threatening lives of the millions of people stuck in protracted emergencies.
The chief stated that even if the lockdowns are being implemented, at least 132 million people may go hungry in 2020, which is an addition to the 690 million who went hungry last year.
The pandemic, therefore, is further worsening the situation of the poor and the underprivileged, he said.
The chief believes that pandemic will worsen the living conditions of the people who are already going through a huge crisis. “Displacement, food shortages, risk of malnutrition, decrease in access to essential services and a heavy toll on mental health are some instances of what the pandemic will worsen,” he said.
While addressing the international community, Ghebreyesus said that this virus should be used as an opportunity to build more efficient health systems.
“The pandemic taught us that health is not a luxury item, it is a foundation of social, economic and political stability,” he said.
Pertinently, for the second day in a row, WHO has reported a record spike in global COVID cases with 2,59,848 new infections during the last 24 hours.
Most of the new cases were reported from the US, India, Brazil and South Africa.
In India, the total number of the COVID cases have mounted to 10.7 lakh. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 3,58,127 samples have tested positive a day ago.
Official sources at Jammu and Kashmir said that 13,198 infections have been reported so far, while as 7,165 have recovered and 238 have died due to the virus.
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