WHO acknowledges 'emerging evidence' on airborne coronavirus transmission
Follow UsStory highlights
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the coronavirus pandemic has been accelerating and has 'clearly not reached the peak'
The World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today that the coronavirus pandemic has been accelerating and has "clearly not reached the peak".
"While the number of deaths appears to have levelled off globally, in reality, some countries have made significant progress in reducing the number of deaths, while in other countries deaths are on the rise," Tedros said.
The UN health body said that WHO experts will be travelling to China shortly to prepare scientific plans with the Chinese counterparts to identify the source of the COVID-19. WHO said the mission would be to advance the understanding of animal hosts for COVID-19 and ascertain how the virus jumped from animals to humans.
During the press conference, the WHO said that there was "emerging evidence" on the airborne transmission of the new coronavirus.
"We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field... therefore we believe that we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications," WHO's professor Benedetta Allegranzi said.
WHO said so far there have been 11.4 million coronavirus cases and over 535, 000 lives lost.
The World Health Organization also sent best wishes to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who was detected with the virus.
"No-one is special in that regard: we are all potentially exposed," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said, adding, "We wish Mr Bolsonaro and his family the best."