Islamabad: Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Monday that “the worst is yet ahead of us” concerning the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” he said during a press briefing.
Ghebreyesus compared the virus to the 1918 flu that killed 675,000 people in the US and tens of millions around the world. But he argued that the world now has the technology to prevent “that kind of crisis.”
“Let’s prevent this tragedy,” he said. “It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”
This comes as countries around the world are beginning to reopen as they’ve seen decreasing infection rates. Some of these places, including Singapore, are already seeing their cases spike again.
President Donald Trump has begun urging governors to reopen their states despite experts’ warnings that doing so too soon would provoke a devastating resurgence of the virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, says the development of a vaccine is at least one year to 18 months away.
Ghebreyesus didn’t explain exactly how he expects the virus’ toll to intensify.
As of Monday, the virus has infected almost 2.5 million people in more than 200 countries and territories and killed at least 166,000 people, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
