WHO:
Half of new global COVID-19 cases account for India, Brazil

The World Health Organization said Monday that India and Brazil accounted for more than half of the new COVID-19 infections in the world last week.

Iran PressEurope: The Johns Hopkins COVID Resource Center reports India saw a record number of new cases with 2,612,354 in the week ending Saturday. Brazil saw 414,123 new cases during that time.

During a briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO and its foundation are providing equipment and supplies including oxygen concentrators and mobile field hospitals to India.  

They are also providing advice also on how to care for COVID-19 patients at home when a family cannot find a hospital bed.

The WHO chief says they have been working with their regional adjunct, the Pan American Health Organization, to get medicines and assistance to Brazil as well.  

Tedros said what is happening in India and Brazil can happen anywhere unless public health precautions that WHO has been calling for since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, like wearing masks, social distancing, and proper hygiene, are taken. He said: “Vaccines are part of the answer, but they are not the only answer."

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