The World Health Organization announced that the world set a new high of 350,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday, including more than 109,000 cases in Europe alone, marking a new surge in the pandemic across the globe, ABC News reports. The US has averaged more than 40,000 cases daily.
“The majority of people in the world are still susceptible to this disease,” WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan warned. He said countries should focus not just on restrictive measures, but also on bolstering their surveillance systems, testing, contact tracing and ensuring populations are engaged.
Ryan said that the WHO wants to avoid lockdowns that can lead to economic losses, but that if precautions are not followed, such actions may be needed to avoid excessive deaths.
Ryan said lockdowns “may be unavoidable where the disease has got out of control again, but we shouldn’t accept that in every country, the return of cases should be seen with an immediate return of the need for lockdown restrictions.”