The number of global coronavirus deaths could reach two million, the World Health Organisation has warned. It comes as the death toll in the nine months since the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, nears one million.
Dr Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s emergencies programme, said the figure could be higher without concerted action to curb the pandemic.
“It’s certainly unimaginable,” he told a briefing. “But it’s not impossible, because if we look at losing a million people in nine months and then we just look at the realities of getting a vaccine out there in the next nine months, it’s a big task for everyone involved.
“There’s the issue of funding these vaccines. There’s the issue of distributing these vaccines and then the issues of acceptance.
“And beyond that, with the work we still have to do in controlling this disease. And remember, we have things we can do now to drive transmission down and drive down the number of deaths.”
Dr Ryan said there was a “worrying” spike of COVID-19 infections across Europe, which have triggered local lockdowns.
These are in part due to improved and rigorous testing, he added.
“But what is worrying to us is an increase in hospitalisations and an increase in bed occupancy for hospitalisations and also in ICU. We’re at the end of September … towards the end of September, and we haven’t even started our flu season yet.
“So what we are worried about is the possibility that these trends are going in the wrong direction. Now, on the other hand, we are in a much different situation now than we were in a few months ago. We have tools in place to be able to reduce transmission and to save lives.”
Infections have risen to almost 32.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the coronavirus outbreak.
Many countries are experiencing a second surge as winter approaches. It is unknown what impact the cold months will have on the disease, and how it will interact with other seasonal respiratory viruses.
Around the world, stricter social-distancing guidelines and restrictions on businesses are being brought into effect to curb a second spike.
In Spain, the government has recommended reimposing a partial lockdown on all of Madrid area, where cases have risen sharply. Instead, local authorities stepped up restrictions on some districts of the city, affecting a million people.
More restrictions have also been announced in several regions of the UK, as new daily infections continue to rise.
Elsewhere, Israel tightened restrictions on businesses and travel, one week after the country became the first in the world to begin a second nationwide lockdown.
In contrast, curbs on businesses are being lifted in some US states, despite the increasing number of cases nationwide.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert, said the first wave of the pandemic had not ended yet in the US, because infections have not decreased sufficiently since the initial outbreak.
“Rather than say, ‘a second wave,’ why don’t we say, ‘are we prepared for the challenge of the fall and the winter?’,” Dr Fauci told reporters.
