The WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the total number of coronavirus cases across the globe is expected to hit 10 million next week, and that a number of countries are yet to see their peaks.

More than 9.1 million cases of Covid-19 have now been reported to WHO, and more than 470,000 deaths. In the first month of this outbreak, less than 10,000 cases were reported to WHO. In the last month, almost four million cases have been reported. We expect to reach a total of 10M cases within next week. This is a sober reminder that even as we continue R&D (research and development) into vaccines and therapeutics, we have an urgent responsibility to do everything we can with the tools we've now to suppress transmission save lives, the WHO director general informed in a press briefing. He also mentioned that even though the United States of America, the country that is worst affected as a result of the pandemic, has been seeing an intense increase in the number of Covid-19 infections, the country is yet to see its peak. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Program, reportedly stated during the press briefing, I would characterize the situation in the Americas in general, and in Central and Latin America as still evolving and not having reached its peak yet, and likely to result in a sustained number of cases and continued deaths in the coming weeks.

I think the question we ask now for many countries is: Is the public health system not just doing testing, but is it actually detecting cases as soon as possible after those cases become unwell? Are we immediately identifying their contacts? Are we in a position to quarantine contacts? And are the contacts supported in that quarantine? I think this is a question that's facing many countries now because countries have fought hard including the United Kingdom, they have fought very hard and populations have sacrificed a lot to drive transmission down. It's taken time. It's taken its toll on people personally, it's taken its toll on communities, it's taken its toll on the economy, the Executive Director further added.

Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 491856 people and infected over 9714860 people across the world. The virus was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in China. As the death toll and overall cases began rising rapidly across the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency and the outbreak was labelled a pandemic.