WHO: Pandemic ‘not even close’ to over as toll passes 500,000

GENEVA AFP June30, 2020- The coronavirus pandemic is “not even close to being over”, the WHO warned Monday, as the global death toll passed half a million and cases surged in Latin America and the United States.   

In another grim milestone, the number of infections recorded worldwide topped 10 million, while some authorities reimposed lockdown measures that have crippled the economies worldwide.   
 “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.   

 “But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over,” he said, adding that “although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.” The virus emerged at least six months ago in China, where the WHO will send a team next week in the search for its origin, Tedros said.   

COVID-19 is still rampaging across the US, which has recorded more than 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases -- both around a quarter of the global totals.