The World Health Organization director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has issued a stark COVID-19 warning in Geneva. “Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” Tedros told reporters at a press conference at WHO headquarters.
The statement comes as many countries begin to ease lockdown measures that were put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Tedros compared the current pandemic to the Spanish flu of 1918 to 1920 which 1918 flu that infected around a third of the world’s population and killed up to 50 million people.
“It has a very dangerous combination and this is happening … like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people,” he told reporters in Geneva.
“But now we have the technology, we can prevent that disaster, we can prevent that kind of crisis,” Tedros urged.
“Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”
According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, to date, the COVID-19 virus has infected nearly 2.5 million people worldwide and killed over 166,000.
While Tedros didn’t elaborate on why he expects COVID-19 crisis to worsen, many health experts believe that the future spread of the illness through Africa, where healthcare systems are less developed, could be disastrous.
