WHO warns first wave of coronavirus pandemic not yet finished

As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, a top health expert is warning that the world is still smack in the middle of the pandemic, dampening hopes for a speedy global economic rebound and renewed international travel.

"Right now, we're not in the second wave. We're right in the middle of the first wave globally," said Dr Mike Ryan, the World Health Organisation's executive director.

"We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up," Ryan told reporters, pointing to South America, South Asia and other areas where infections are still on the rise.

India saw a record single-day jump in new cases for the seventh straight day. It reported 6,535 new infections Tuesday, raising its total to 145,380, including 4,167 deaths.

The virus has taken hold in some of India's poorest, most densely populated areas, underscoring the challenges that authorities face in curbing the spread of a virus for which a vaccine or cure isn't yet in sight.

Most of India's cases are concentrated in the western states of Maharashtra, home to the financial hub of Mumbai, and Gujarat. Infections have also climbed in the east as migrant workers stranded by lockdowns returned to their native villages from India's largest cities.

Despite



this, India allowed domestic flights to resume Monday following a two-month hiatus, but at a fraction of normal traffic levels.

WHO poured cold water on the hopes of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and others of quickly re-opening the economy, warning that authorities must first have enough testing in place to control the spread of the pandemic. Brazil has 375,000 coronavirus infections - second only to the 1.6 million cases in the US - and has counted over 23,000 deaths but many fear Brazil's true toll is much higher.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there would be a "temporary pause" on the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global clinical trial. The announcement came after a paper in the Lancet showed that people taking the drug were at higher risk of death and heart problems.

Still, several countries in Europe and North Africa are using chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients. Brazil's Bolsonaro has ordered an army lab to boost its production of chloroquine.

Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 5.5 million people, killing over 346,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe has had about 170,000 deaths and the US has seen nearly 100,000. Experts say the tally understates the real effects of the pandemic due to counting issues in many nations.