{"id":402148,"date":"2020-12-12T09:44:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T06:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/?p=402148"},"modified":"2020-12-12T11:42:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T08:42:20","slug":"global-covid-deaths-up-60-in-last-6-weeks-who-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/global-covid-deaths-up-60-in-last-6-weeks-who-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Global COVID deaths up 60% in last 6 weeks: WHO chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geneva (SONNA)<\/strong>The light is getting brighter with vaccines against COVID-19 becoming available, the World Health Organization chief said Friday, but expressed concern there was a 60% global rise in deaths in the last six weeks and a doubling in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter, but we have to face some of the challenges to make the light really bright,\u201d said WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus at a twice-weekly WHO webinar from Geneva on COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past six weeks, the number of weekly deaths has increased by around 60%,\u201d said Tedros.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost cases and deaths are in Europe and the Americas,\u201d he said, while another WHO official noted that the rise in Europe in that period was 100%.<\/p>\n

Tedros said that this week, vaccines against COVID-19 started to roll out in Britain, and more countries are expected to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have safe and effective vaccines against a virus that was completely unknown to us only a year ago is an astounding scientific achievement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The WHO chief said that the current festive season is a time to relax and to celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we must not relax our guard. Celebration can very quickly turn to mourning if we fail to take the right precautions,\u201d said Tedros.<\/p>\n

He urged people to consider their plans carefully as they prepare to celebrate over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you live in an area with high transmission, please take every precaution to keep yourself and others safe,\u201d said Tedros.<\/p>\n

He noted that COVID-19 had triggered a deep global economic crisis that could have a long-lasting impact on health financing and on children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 crisis provided an opportunity for a reset in countries with weak health financing systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cProlonged school closures are presenting an unprecedented challenge to children\u2019s education, health, and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that although children are less at risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19 than older adults, millions of children have suffered from the pandemic in other ways, including disruption to their education,\u201d said Tedros.<\/p>\n

He cited data collected by UNESCO, showing that classrooms for nearly 1 in 5 schoolchildren globally \u2013 or 320 million \u2013 were closed as of Dec. 1, an increase of almost 90 million in just one month.<\/p>\n

In some places, children have been out of school for 9 months or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cProlonged school closures are presenting an unprecedented challenge to children\u2019s education, health, and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today WHO released a new checklist to support schools in reopening and preparing for resurgences of COVID-19 and similar public health crises.<\/p>\n

@AA<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geneva (SONNA)The light is getting brighter with vaccines against COVID-19 becoming available, the World Health Organization chief said Friday, but expressed concern there was a 60% global rise in deaths in the last six weeks and a doubling in Europe. \u201cThe light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter, but we have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-402148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402150,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402148\/revisions\/402150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}