WHO especially worried about Central and South America: WHO chief

GENEVA — World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said that his organization is especially worried about Central and South America, where many countries are witnessing accelerating epidemics.

He said during a virtual press conference that more than 100,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported to WHO for each of the past five days, and the Americas continues to account for the most cases.

"For several weeks, the number of cases reported each day in the Americas has been more than the rest of the world put together," he said.

"WHO continues to work through our regional and country offices to monitor the pandemic, to support countries to respond, and to adapt our guidance for every situation," he added.

According to the latest WHO figure, globally as of Wednesday afternoon, there have been 6,287,771 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 379,941 deaths, reported to WHO.

The United States of America remains the hardest-hit country by the virus, with a total of 1,798,330 confirmed cases and 105,008 deaths being reported to WHO. Brazil, the second on the list in terms of the confirmed cases, has so far reported 526,447 infections with 29,937 deaths.