World leaders must not politicise the coronavirus pandemic but unite to fight it, the head of the World Health Organisation warns, reminding all that the pandemic is still accelerating and producing record daily increases in infections.
The comments by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has faced criticism from US President Donald Trump, came as the number of reported infections soared in Brazil, Iraq, India and southern and western US states, straining local hospitals.
In New York City, once the epicentre of the US outbreak, Monday was a key day for lifting many coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
It took over three months for the world to see one million virus infections but the last one million cases have come in just eight days, Tedros said during a videoconference for the Dubai-based World Government Summit.
Tedros never mentioned Trump’s name or the fact he was determined to pull the United States out of the UN health agency but warned against “politicising” the pandemic.
“The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself, it’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” he said. “We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world.”
Trump has criticised the WHO for its early response to the outbreak and what he considers its excessive praise of China, where the outbreak began, as his administration’s response in the US has come under scrutiny. In response, Trump has threatened to end all US funding for the WHO.
Nearly nine million people have been infected by the virus worldwide and more than 468,000 have died, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that, indeed, the world was not prepared,” Tedros said. “Globally, the pandemic is still accelerating.”
