The World Health Organization is warning that global Covid cases could pass 300 million by early next year if the pandemic continues in its current direction, urging world leaders to slow the spread by providing more testing supplies, treatments and vaccines to poorer nations.
The projection came just a week after the WHO reported 200 million Covid cases worldwide and six months after the globe surpassed 100 million cases, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing Wednesday. With four variants of concern on the WHO’s radar— including the highly infectious delta variant—Tedros said the total amount of unreported Covid cases makes the real tally “much higher” than what’s reported.
“Whether we reach 300 million and how fast we get there depends on all of us,” Tedros said.
