Global Covid-19 cases, deaths rise ‘at worrying rate’, says WHO
Cemetery workers dig graves for victims and suspected victims of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic at the Nossa Senhora cemetary in Manaus, Amazon state, Brazil on May 6, 2020.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that Covid-19 is fast-spreading, signalling that the transmission of the coronavirus is far from contained.
WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his regular briefing on Friday, said cases and deaths were continuing to increase around the world “at worrying rates”.
“Globally, the number of new cases per week has nearly doubled over the past two months. This is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far during the pandemic,” Mr Tedros said.
This is even as the world marked a grim milestone on Friday: Covid-19 deaths reaching the three-million mark.
On Saturday, the infection rate in Kenya was still at a double-digit figure as it has been for the rest of the week. According to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, there were 1,027 new infections. Given that the sample size was 7,184, this was a 14.3 per cent infection rate.
On the other hand, the death toll rose by 20: Eight of them having occurred last month and 12 being from facility record audits. The total number of Covid-19 deaths in Kenya now stands at 2,463.
As far as seriously ill patients are concerned, there was a total of 264 patients under intensive care yesterday and 15 in high-dependency units. These are part of the 1,653, who are admitted at various facilities across the country.
As Kenya battles to contain the third wave, trends from across the world point at sharp spikes in infection rates.
The WHO boss said on Friday that some countries that had previously been reporting low infection figures were now recording steep increases in disease transmission. He gave Papua New Guinea as an example.
“Until the beginning of this year, Papua New Guinea had reported less than 900 cases, and just nine deaths. It has now reported more than 9,300 cases and 82 deaths,” said Mr Tedros.
“While these numbers are still smaller than other countries, the increase is sharp and WHO is very concerned about the potential for a much larger pandemic,” he added.
