WHO predicts 100 million additional cases worldwide

On Aug 12, 2021

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggested Wednesday that unless things change, the world could see 100 million more cases of COVID-19 by the early months of next year.

“At the current trajectory, we could pass 300 million cases early next year,” he said during a media briefing. “But we can change that.

We are all in this together, but the world is not acting like it.”

The number of recorded COVID-19 cases had reached 200 million last week, just six months after the world passed 100 million cases, Tedros noted, “and we know that the real number of cases is much higher.”

At the briefing, WHO officials emphasized that more research was being done on treatment for COVID-19 in an unprecedented mult-icountry trial called Solidarity Plus, which will look at the effectiveness of three new drugs in 52 countries.Officials also said the spread of virulent variants such as delta would change assumptions about herd immunity and vaccination targets.