The head of the World Overall health Organization (WHO) says he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be about in underneath two decades.

Talking in Geneva on Friday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Spanish flu of 1918 took two decades to overcome.

But he added that present-day advancements in technological know-how could help the globe to halt the virus “in a shorter time”.

“Of class with far more connectiveness, the virus has a far better opportunity of spreading,” he stated.

“But at the same time, we have also the technologies to cease it, and the understanding to halt it,” he noted, stressing the great importance of “countrywide unity, worldwide solidarity”.

The lethal flu of 1918 killed at minimum 50 million people.

The coronavirus has so significantly killed nearly 800,000 people today and infected 22.7 million a lot more.

• What can we master from the Spanish Flu?
• How they attempted to curb a pandemic in 1918

Dr Tedros also responded to a dilemma about corruption relating to private protecting products (PPE) during the pandemic, which he explained as “prison”.

“Any form of corruption is unacceptable,” he answered.

“On the other hand, corruption linked to PPE… for me it can be really murder. Since if overall health employees perform without the need of PPE, we’re jeopardizing their lives. And that also dangers the lives of the individuals they provide.”

While the problem connected to allegations of corruption in South Africa, a quantity of nations have confronted identical difficulties.

On Friday, protests were held in the Kenyan money Nairobi in excess of alleged graft throughout the pandemic, though medical professionals from a number of the city’s general public hospitals went on strike more than unpaid wages and a lack of protecting devices.

The very same working day, the head of the WHO’s well being emergencies programme warned that the scale of the coronavirus outbreak in Mexico was “evidently less than-recognised”.

Dr Mike Ryan mentioned the equal of all around 3 folks per 100,000 were being being analyzed in Mexico, compared to about 150 for each 100,000 people today in the US.

Mexico has the 3rd greatest amount of fatalities in the entire world, with practically 60,000 fatalities recorded given that the pandemic started, in accordance to Johns Hopkins University.

• The place are the world’s coronavirus hotspots?

In the US, meanwhile, Democratic nominee Joe Biden has attacked President Donald Trump’s dealing with of the pandemic.

“Our existing president’s unsuccessful in his most primary obligation to the country. He is unsuccessful to protect us. He’s failed to guard America,” Mr Biden reported, and pledged to introduce a countrywide mandate to don masks if elected.

Additional than 1,000 new deaths had been announced in the US on Friday, bringing the overall amount of fatalities to 173,490.

What is going on elsewhere?

On Friday, a selection of countries introduced their highest numbers of new cases in months.

South Korea recorded 324 new conditions – its maximum one-day full due to the fact March.

As with its previous outbreak, the new bacterial infections have been joined to churches, and museums, nightclubs and karaoke bars have now been shut in and about the funds Seoul in response.

Media playback is unsupported on your system

A selection of European nations around the world are also viewing rises.

Poland and Slovakia both equally declared file new day-to-day infections on Friday, with 903 and 123 conditions respectively, while Spain and France have noticed spectacular improves in recent times.

• Why Spain is observing 2nd Covid wave

In Lebanon, a two-week partial lockdown – like a night time-time curfew – has arrive into result as the state saw its greatest quantity of cases because the pandemic began.

Media playback is unsupported on your unit

Infections have doubled considering the fact that a devastating blast in the capital Beirut killed at minimum 178 people today and injured hundreds much more on 4 August.

The catastrophe remaining an approximated 300,000 individuals homeless and positioned enormous strain on professional medical services.