Confirmed COVID-19 cases hit 2 million worldwide

Affecting 210 countries and territories around the world COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 126,000 people since its outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in December.

On Wednesday morning, Coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million.

The US tops the list of countries with most COVID-19 cases. As of publication, the US has recorded more than 614,000 cases and almost 26,000 deaths. Across the Atlantic, Spain and Italy have reported more than 170,000 and 160,000 cases, correspondingly.

The World Health Organization (WHO) officials have cautioned patience before lifting social distancing restrictions, as some countries note a significant slowdown of the virus. Several are gradually easing lockdown measures, having reached their COVID-19 infections peak, while others have extended their lockdown until mid-May, to enable partial easing of restrictions afterwards.

“While COVID-19 accelerates very fast, it decelerates much more slowly. In other words, the way down is much slower than the way up,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference at the organization’s Geneva headquarters on Monday.

Dozens of countries have entered the race for a vaccine, working in labs to find the vaccine that could stem transmission of the fast-spreading virus. Several scenarios are on the table; the use of an anti-malaria drug, a drug used for HIV treatment, another one that is authorised to treat sclerosis. According to the WHO, no drug has yet proved to be effective in treating COVID-19.

On April 2, the Coronavirus pandemic broke the 1 million barrier.

On Tuesday midnight, US President Donald Trump said he had instructed his administration to suspend funding to WHO, over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, citing that it had “failed” in its basic duty and it “must be held accountable.”

-Agencies