GENEVA, May 2 (Xinhua). The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that the COVID 19 outbreak is still an emergency for public health of international interest (PHEIC), the highest alert level of the WHO.
PHEIC was declared on January 30th due to the novel outbreak of coronavirus when there were only 82 COVID-19 cases outside of China.
On Friday at 2 a.m. (0000 GMT), WHO announced that it had received reports of 3,181,642 confirmed cases, including 224,301 deaths worldwide.
The WHO Director General is responsible for designating a PHEIC and the decision should be reviewed every three months in accordance with international health regulations.
“As we made it clear from the start, we will continue to ask countries to implement a comprehensive package of measures to find, isolate, test and treat each case and track every contact,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual press conference from here.
After more than three months of fierce fighting, Wuhan, the central Chinese city that was once the worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak, resolved all COVID-19 cases in hospitals on April 26.
“This is very, very welcome news,” said Maria van Kerkhove, technical director of the WHO program for health emergencies, at the conference. “So congratulations on this achievement.”
She appreciated the “tireless efforts” of the people in Wuhan.
“We take your hat off and thank you for your dedication and service, and for sharing what you could do in the world,” she said.
The WHO repeated at the conference on Friday that the coronavirus was “of natural origin”.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge life and the economy.
The Indian Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that 1,971 additional positive cases and 66 new deaths have been reported since Friday evening, and Singapore reported 932 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 17,101.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the US exceeded 1.1 million as of 7.40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT) Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University, and the death toll from the disease reached 64,789 nationwide.
The data shows that manufacturing activity fell to record lows in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Institute for Supply Management reported on Friday that the US Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell 7.6 percentage points to 41.5 percent in April. This is the lowest since April 2009 as the COVID 19 impact and weak global energy markets increase.
PMI for UK manufacturing fell to 32.6 in April, according to IHS MARKIT / CIPS, as manufacturing, order intake and employment contracted at the fastest rates in almost 30 years.
A value below 50 percent indicates that manufacturing is generally shrinking. End item
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