Coronavirus: WHO boss sees 'green shoots of hope' in coronavirus fight - and praises one of UK's measures
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says it is "never too late" to contain an outbreak and praises the "strong measures" used in England.
Monday 10 August 2020 21:56, UK
The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said he can see "green shoots of hope" in the battle against coronavirus, even with the global case count set to reach 20 million within days.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he also expects the global death count to get to around 750,000 this week; however, he said many countries were providing reasons for optimism in their response to the pandemic.
He said in a briefing on Monday: "I know many of you are grieving and that this is a difficult moment for the world.
"But I want to be clear, there are green shoots of hope and no matter where a country, a region, a city or a town is - it's never too late to turn the COVID-19 outbreak around."
The WHO's director-general pointed to New Zealand, which on Sunday marked 100 days with no local spread of the coronavirus, as an example for the world.
He also had kind words for Boris Johnson, praising the UK prime minister for ordering parts of the North of England back into lockdown after a spike in infections there.
He said: "Over the last few days, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson put areas of northern England under stay at home notifications as clusters of cases were identified.
"In France, President Emmanuel Macron introduced compulsory masking in busy outdoor spaces of Paris in response to an increase in cases.
"Strong and precise measures like these, in combination with utilising every tool at our disposal, are key to preventing any resurgence in COVID-19 and allowing societies to be reopened safely."
The UK, Germany and France "were able to suppress" the virus by taking action, he said - despite a worrying rise in cases across all three countries.
Other leaders, he said, "must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures".
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The WHO has called for countries to use a combination of rapid case identification, contact tracing, physical distancing, mask wearing and regular washing of hands to slow the spread of the pandemic.
However, the global case count now stands at more than 19.9 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the pandemic.
More than a quarter are in the US, which surpassed five million cases over the weekend, while Brazil has recorded more than three million and India more than 2.2 million.
The worldwide death count stood at a little over 732,000 on Monday afternoon, with the US and Brazil the only two countries to have posted more than 100,000 deaths of people with the virus.