US 'has potential' to become new epicenter of coronavirus outbreak: WHO

The World Health Organisation has said on March 25 that the United States has the potential to become the new epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak due to a “very large acceleration in infections” in the country. While the life in China, where the COVID-19 had originated in December 2019 is slowly coming back to normalcy, the fatal COVID-19 has spread to over 190 countries and the US has reported 54,881 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 782 fatalities. 

The crisis due to the pandemic has prompted more governors to join states ordering all citizens to stay at home and practice social distancing. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris has told the reporters that over the past 24 hours, 85 per cent of the new cases worldwide were from Europe and the US and out of those, at least 40 per cent were just from the US.  However, the WHO spokesperson also lauded the improvements made in the country with more intensified testing among other efforts to isolate the sick and trace their immediate contacts exposed to the fatal COVID-19.

When she was further asked if the US can become the new epicentre, Harris replied that the United Nations health agency is now “seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the US. So it does have that potential. We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential”.

She added that the US has a “very large outbreak and an outbreak that is increasing in intensity”.

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'Lockdown is not enough'

Another WHO official has said that in order to combat the deadly coronavirus outbreak, just lockdowns are “not enough”. This comes as the fatal virus has now spread to over 190 countries and the global infection count has crossed 4,22,000, which has prompted major cities to go under lockdown. The leaders have viewed social distancing as the most effective way to tackle the pandemic. However, Dr Mike Ryan said that countries should instead focus on “finding who is sick” and then “isolate them”. 

In a televised interview with an international media outlet, Ryan has said, "The danger right now with the lockdowns ... if we don't put in place the strong public health measures now, when those movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is the disease will jump back up." Most of the European countries, along with the United States have followed the strict measures taken by China and other Asian countries in order to stem the virus spread.

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(With agency inputs)