The World Health Organization confirmed that Covid-19 is ten times deadlier than the swine flu that spread across the world a decade ago.
More than 1.6 million people were infected during the swine flu pandemic that spanned between January 2009 and August 2010 and 18,448 people were killed.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the top official of the World Health Organisation warned the world that the novel coronavirus has gripped the planet and caused 10 ten times the fatalities caused by H1N1.
As nations including the US, Spain, and Denmark are moving towards reopening their societies, the UN health body urges governments to relax restrictions.
He said, “We can only say what we know, and we can only act on what we know”. A clearer picture of the virus, how it behaves, how to treat it and how to stop its spread is getting from the evidence from several countries.
The Covid-19 is ten times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic and it spreads fast. The virus spreads faster in crowded places like nursing homes. To stop the transmission, early case finding, isolating, testing, caring for each case and tracing the contacts of infected are essential.
Covid-19 cases are doubling every three
to four days in some countries, however, it is not decelerating as fast it accelerates.The way down is much slower and difficult to achieve than the way up and hence the control measures need to be lifted slowly and carefully with control.
He requested governments to give priority to the impact of the virus in human health while relaxing the control measures.
He commented that Covid-19 is deadlier than swine flu just after Donald Trump said he would consider relaxing social distancing measures urged by the White House.
The US President Donald Trump over and over asked to reopen the economy while local officials are afraid that this approach would cause more deaths and continue the outbreak.
