The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the number of newly reported COVID-19 infections has nearly halved over the past five weeks.
In a briefing on Monday, Ghebreyesus explained that the reported cases of COVID-19 worldwide have decreased for the fifth consecutive week. He added, "Last week saw the lowest number of infections recorded in a week since October (of last year)." Ghebreyesus affirmed that the number of new weekly cases has dropped by nearly half in five weeks. The European Commission has signed contracts with various companies to purchase potential COVID-19 vaccines, including AstraZeneca, Sanofi GSK, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax.
Globally, total COVID-19 cases have surpassed 100 million, with deaths exceeding 1.95 million. In related news, following WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus's affirmation that all hypotheses regarding the origin of the novel coronavirus remain on the table after an investigative mission returned from China, American expert Peter Daszak, who is a member of the WHO team, stated the most likely scenario regarding the virus's origins.
In an interview with the New York Times, Daszak noted that “the infection likely moved from bats to a farm with wild animals, where it could have been contracted by farmers or animals living there." He supports the hypothesis that the new virus first emerged in bats in Southeast Asia or South China and then later transferred to a farm for breeding wildlife, suggesting that animal markets played a significant role in the spread of the coronavirus. Daszak continued, “The virus spread more after it reached the market in Wuhan."
He pointed out that "various species of animals were sold in this market," adding that Chinese experts sampled some animals inside and around the market in the early phases of the pandemic, but no traces of the coronavirus were found in them; however, these animals represented only a small fraction of those present in the market when the outbreak began.
The investigation report also indicated that WHO experts were unable to access personal data of some patients due to privacy policies in China. Additionally, some individuals who contracted COVID-19 declined to meet with organization representatives. Experts believe that "the infection with the novel coronavirus was the result of direct infection from bats in the market through the spread of a disease-carrying agent." They also confirmed that the likelihood of the virus spilling over to humans due to a lab leak is "unlikely."
It is noted that the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Wuhan in December 2019, and the virus has claimed more than 2.3 million lives worldwide.
