WHO chief hopes pandemic to last less than two years

Photo: MTI/AP/Miroslav Lelas

The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

GENEVA

The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that he hopes the COVID-19 pandemic will last less than two years.

“Hoping we can have additional tools like a vaccine, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu,” he told a press conference in Geneva, referring to the Spanish flu pandemic which claimed millions of lives and took two years to stop.

BERLIN

Germany’s COVID-19 cases rose by 2,034 within one day to 232,082, the highest daily spike since April, the Robert Koch Institute said on Saturday.

The death toll has increased by seven to 9,267.

NEW DELHI

India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 2,975,701 and death toll due to the pandemic in the country also surged to 55,794 on Saturday, revealed the latest data released by the federal health ministry.

As many as 69,878 new cases and 945 deaths were reported during the past 24 hours.

SHANGHAI

Shanghai reported 13 new imported COVID-19 cases and no increase in domestically-transmitted cases on Friday, the municipal health commission said Saturday.

Twelve imported cases are Chinese nationals working, studying or living overseas, and one is a British national.