Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
The world surpassed 20 million coronavirus infections on Monday, according to data by Johns Hopkins University, and in a matter of days the overall death toll will top 750,000.
Despite these staggering figures, the World Health Organization urged people not to despair.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made clear during a briefing in Geneva that there are "green shoots of hopes."
He said, "It's never too late to turn the outbreak around," adding that in order to effectively address the pandemic, leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures.
Dr. Tedros gave examples of countries that had successfully clamped down on COVID-19, such as Rwanda and its free testing and treatment program and New Zealand, which celebrated 100 days with no community transmission.
Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said the reality is there will always be a chance of flareups of the virus until it is gone, and controlling it comes down to how quickly and effectively countries shut down localized transmission.
[Clip: Ryan]
"You take the pressure off the virus, the virus bounces back. That's the reality, that's the fact. You could call that a second wave. You could call that the second spike. You can call that a flareup. You can call it anything you like. Take the pressure off this virus, the virus will bounce back."
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