The number of newly reported coronavirus cases worldwide hit a daily record this week with more than 100,000 new cases over the last 24 hours, according to the World Health Organization.

Almost two-thirds of the cases were reported in just four countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference Wednesday at the agency’s Geneva headquarters. “We still have a long way to go in this pandemic.”

The majority of new confirmed cases are coming from the Americas, followed by Europe, according to WHO’s daily report. The U.S. reported 45,251 new cases on Tuesday, according to the agency. Russia had the second-most reported cases Tuesday at 9,263, according to WHO.

There are now close to 5 million global cases and roughly 325,000 deaths since the virus emerged in Wuhan, China, less than five months ago, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The WHO has been warning world leaders that there can be “no going back to business as usual” following the Covid-19 outbreak, which has upended economies and wreaked havoc on nearly every country around the globe.

The agency has told countries that they will need to manage around the coronavirus for the foreseeable future as cases level off or decline in some countries, while peaking in others and resurging in areas where the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to be under control.

While social distancing measures put in place in numerous countries to slow the spread of the coronavirus have been successful, the virus remains “extremely dangerous,” WHO officials have said. Current data show “most of the world’s population remains susceptible,” they said, meaning outbreaks can easily “reignite.”

The new record in cases comes as President Donald Trump threatens to permanently pull funding from the agency.

During the press briefing, WHO officials said they are worried their emergency programs will suffer if Trump follows through on his threats.

Most funding from the United States goes directly to the program that helps countries all over the world in “all sorts of fragile and difficult settings,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program.

“We’ll obviously have to work with other partners to ensure those funds can still flow,” Ryan said. “This is going to be a major implication for delivering essential health services to some of the most vulnerable people in the world and we trust developed donors will, if necessary, step in to fill that gap.”

Tedros said the WHO is “very concerned” about the rise in cases in low- and middle-income countries.

He said South Korea has been “impressive,” building on its experience of the MERS coronavirus “to quickly implement a comprehensive strategy to find, isolate, test & care for every case, & trace every contact.”

“This was critical to the Republic of Korea curtailing the first wave and now quickly identifying and containing new outbreaks,” he said.

@ CNBC

Taiwan is campaigning furiously to attend the next World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting to be held from May 18 as the island’s successful coronavirus containment strategy has attracted the world’s attention.

There is just one problem: China, which claims Taiwan as its province with no right to its own diplomatic representation on the global stage and in international organizations. The WHA is the decision making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency.

Taiwan joined WHA meetings as an observer from 2009 to 2016, when a president deemed to be friendly with China held office. It had campaigned for years before its inclusion at the time.

This time, Taiwan said it has not been receiving first-hand information from the WHO on the coronavirus outbreak, putting the health of Taiwanese at risk.

But that didn’t stop the self-ruled island just across a narrow strait from China from executing a plan using early detection, border controls and intensive contract tracing that has won plaudits the world over. Taiwan wants an observer seat at the next WHA meeting.

Admitting Taiwan to the WHA meeting “will be an occasion where Taiwan can share our experience in areas such as testing, diagnosis, border control, and community outbreak prevention. To avoid a repeat of the current pandemic and effectively ensure global health security, the world must take action to improve communication and transparency,” Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare said in a statement.

Despite the lack of diplomatic allies, voices from a number of countries have come out to back Taiwan’s participation in the meeting. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has lobbied for Taiwan’s inclusion in the meeting. Other countries expressing their support include Japan and New Zealand.

Even though it’s near mainland China, Taiwan – which has not implemented any strict lockdowns – has reported just 440 cases and seven deaths so far in its population of 24 million. In comparison, South Korea has reported almost 11,000 cases so far while Singapore in Southeast Asia has recorded over 20,000 cases.

China will decide if Taiwan can join the meeting

However, Taiwan’s participation in the meeting is not one WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus can decide as member states need to approve the move.

Despite the U.S. being the largest donor to the WHO, China has been making diplomatic inroads into international organizations such as the UN, garnering support from and influencing various member states.

“China has always been the arbiter of whether or not Taiwan can participate in WHA meetings, and it makes that decision based on its own political calculation of the state of cross-Strait relations, rather than concern for global public health,” said Drew Thompson, a former U.S. defense department official responsible for managing bilateral relations with China, Taiwan and Mongolia.

The current Tsai Ing-wen administration in Taipei is deemed to be independence-leaning — a taboo for Beijing. Tsai won Taiwan’s presidential election in January on the back of anti-Beijing sentiment due to concerns over eroding freedoms in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.

With Beijing-Taipei relations the frostiest in years, this does not bode well for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHA meeting.

On Monday, the WHO’s lawyer told an online press briefing that director general Tedros has “no mandate” to invite Taiwan to take part in the meeting next week, Reuters reported.

Beijing has repeatedly said that Taiwan is adequately represented by China.

“On the Taiwan region’s participation in WHO activities, China’s position is clear and consistent. It must be handled according to the one-China principle,” said Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry at a scheduled press conference last week, according to an official transcript.

Hua said Beijing has made “proper arrangement” for Taiwan to deal with local or global public health emergencies in a timely fashion, but Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was pushing for independence.

“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the DPP authorities have been engaging in political manipulation and constant hype-up over the issue of Taiwan’s participation in WHO and WHA,” said Hua. “The real intention is very clear. They are taking advantage of the virus to seek independence,” she said.

Taiwan’s mask diplomacy

The WHO has been accused of being deferential to China, not least by U.S. President Donald Trump.

But targeting the organization will not help Taiwan’s cause, said Michael Mazza, a visiting fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank. And even though it is in need of reforms, the WHO is still doing an important job for the world, he added.

The right way to engage the WHO is to target WHA members through bilateral diplomacy so that members support Taiwan, Mazza said at a recent webinar organized by the Washington D.C.-based Global Taiwan Institute, where he is a senior non-resident fellow.

Taiwan on its part has been ramping up its own diplomatic efforts during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, donating face masks, personal protective equipment and medical advice to other countries.

“Should Taiwan be excluded from the WHA this year, despite the disappointment of the people of Taiwan, I expect Taiwan will continue to make positive contributions to global public health efforts to address the COVID pandemic, including sharing their technical expertise and the ‘secret sauce’ of their successful approach at home, as well as providing PPE to countries around the world that are in need of critical supplies,” said Thompson, who is also a visiting senior research Fellow at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

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The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday he regrets U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull funding for the agency, but that now is the time for the world unite in its fight against the new coronavirus.

Trump’s move prompted condemnation from world leaders as global coronavirus infections passed the 2 million mark.

The United States is the world’s worst-affected country and its coronavirus death toll topped 30,000 on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally. The fatalities have doubled in just a week and set a record single-day increase for the second day in a row.

New U.S. cases have been rising by about 25,000 a day, down from a peak of 35,000, according to a Reuters tally.

Trump said the data suggests the nation has passed the peak of new coronavirus infections and that he will announce guidelines for reopening the economy on Thursday.

After gradually becoming more hostile toward the Geneva-based WHO, Trump accused it on Tuesday of promoting Chinese “disinformation” about the virus, saying this had probably worsened the outbreak.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference that the United States “has been a long-standing and generous friend of the WHO, and we hope it will continue to be so.”

“WHO is reviewing the impact on our work of any withdrawal of U.S. funding and we will work with partners to fill any gaps and ensure our work continues uninterrupted,” Tedros added.

Global health campaigner and donor Bill Gates tweeted that “Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds … The world needs WHO now more than ever.”

But Washington showed no sign of softening its stance, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pressed China’s top diplomat on the need for full transparency and information sharing to fight the pandemic.

There was a sign of global unity among the Group of 20 major economies, including the United States, which agreed to suspend debt service payments for the world’s poorest countries from May 1 until the end of the year. Meeting host Saudi Arabia said this would free up more than $20 billion for them to spend on their health systems.

MONEY GOING ELSEWHERE

The United States contributed more than $400 million to the WHO in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

A senior administration official said Washington would stop a $58 million “assessed contribution” that it was due to pay for 2020.

The United States also traditionally provides several hundred million dollars a year in voluntary funding tied to specific WHO programs. “That money will be spent with other partners,” said a second senior Trump administration official.

The WHO has appealed for more than $1 billion specifically to fund operations against the pandemic, which reached 2 million confirmed cases on Wednesday, including more than 131,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

New York City, center of the U.S. epidemic, revised its COVID-19 death toll sharply higher to nearly 11,000 – around a third of the overall U.S. total – to include victims presumed to have died of the disease but who were not tested.

But declines in hospitalizations and need for intensive care for coronavirus patients across New York state prompted Governor Andrew Cuomo to say on Wednesday that fears of its healthcare system becoming overwhelmed had not materialized.

Many of the hardest-hit countries have acknowledged that they are failing to register large numbers of coronavirus deaths among elderly people living in nursing homes, where testing is rare.

Data from Belgium indicated that almost half of its coronavirus-related deaths had occurred in nursing homes.

EASING THE LOCKDOWN

Spain and Italy, which have almost 40,000 coronavirus deaths between them, have begun this week to allow some non-essential businesses to reopen in the hope of reawakening locked-down economies nosediving into recession.

The WHO said the world stood at a “pivotal juncture” and countries that eased restrictions should wait at least two weeks to evaluate the impact before easing further.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday some shops in Germany could reopen next week and that schools would be allowed to open gradually from May 4, but that social distancing rules would remain in place for now.

But England’s chief medical officer said that although Britain, with almost 13,000 deaths, was probably close to the peak of its epidemic, it was too soon to think about next steps.

Some 94 percent of Americans have been under government stay-at-home orders, but a top U.S. health official said governors of about 20 states spared the worst of the coronavirus outbreak may start reopening their economies by Trump’s May 1 target date.

Trump is forming advisory groups on how to open up the country. On Wednesday, Amazon.com (AMZN.O) Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Facebook (FB.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg participated in White House conference calls, their firms said.

In a vivid reminder of the economic damage wrought by efforts to curb the health crisis, data showing the U.S. economy in a deep downturn and reports of persistent crude oil oversupply and collapsing demand sent global shares falling.[MKTS/GLOB]

The MSCI gauge of stocks around the world fell 2.4% after the International Energy Agency forecast a 29 million barrel per day dive in April oil demand to levels not seen in 25 years, and U.S. retail sales plunged 8.7% in March.

On the bright side, 106-year-old Connie Titchen, thought to be the oldest patient in Britain to beat the coronavirus, was discharged from hospital.

“I feel very lucky that I’ve fought off this virus,” she said. “I can’t wait to see my family.”

Reporting from Reuters bureaux across the world; Writing by Nick Macfie, Kevin Liffey and Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Robert Birsel, Philippa Fletcher and Bill Berkrot

The World Health Organization called for “aggressive” action in Southeast Asia to combat the fast-spreading coronavirus, warning on Tuesday (Mar 17) that some countries were heading towards community transmission of the deadly disease.

Infections have soared across the region in recent weeks, forcing several countries to introduce drastic measures ranging from closing their borders to foreign arrivals and imposing nighttime curfews to closing schools and cancelling sports events.

There are concerns that weaker public health care systems in many Southeast Asian countries will be unable to cope with a major outbreak.

“We need to immediately scale up all efforts to prevent the virus from infecting more people,” said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO’s regional director.

“More clusters of virus transmission are being confirmed. While this is an indication of an alert and effective surveillance, it also puts the spotlight on the need for more aggressive and whole of society efforts to prevent further spread of COVID-19,” she said.

“We clearly need to do more, and urgently.”

Malaysia has the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia with 673 cases, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

Many of the country’s infections have been linked to a global Islamic event held last month and attended by almost 20,000 people.

On Monday, the prime minister announced a ban on Malaysians travelling overseas.

Singh said simple measures such as washing hands and social distancing were “critical” in the fight against the virus and could “substantially reduce transmission”.

Since the virus first emerged in China in December, 7,408 people have died around the world, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said more than 180,000 cases had been confirmed worldwide as of Tuesday.

Source: CNA

The World Health Organization called on all countries on Monday to ramp up their testing programs as the best way to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic, and also urged companies to boost production of vital equipment to overcome acute shortages.

“We have a simple message to all countries – test, test, test,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva, calling the pandemic “the defining global health crisis of our time”.

“All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded.”

Without testing, cases cannot be isolated and the chain of infection will not be broken, he said.

Even countries with advanced health systems have struggled to cope with the outbreak, Tedros said, adding he was deeply concerned about its effects on low-income countries where people already struggled with malnutrition and other health problems.

In the United States, the Trump administration has come under fire from critics for what they say has been a slow gearing up of testing for the new virus.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promised on Sunday that Americans would have access in the days ahead to more than 2,000 laboratories capable of processing tests.

With limited testing available, U.S. officials have recorded nearly 3,000 cases and 62 deaths, and large segments of daily activities have been upended across the country.

Tedros said on Monday the strategy to contain the disease – identifying people with infections and rapidly isolating them – was still the best approach, and had shown positive effects in China, South Korea and Singapore.

Many countries have limited testing to the old or with pre-existing conditions, refusing tests for others with milder symptoms who can nevertheless spread the virus. Often they simply do not have the resources to carry out more tests.

Paul Molinaro, in charge of operations, support and logistics at the WHO, called for “a change in mindset” to overcome supply shortages in items such as test kits and protective equipment to fight the pandemic.

“Is this a challenge? It is. Is it easy: no it’s not. Is there a chance we can get availability and get this equipment? We remain optimistic,” he told the same news conference, referring to “severe market constraints” for some equipment.

Tedros said the WHO was working with the private sector to increase production of protective equipment, describing the current shortage as a “market failure”. He also warned against hoarding of supplies.

Meanwhile, Tedros, who was upbeat enough to make a joke in Spanish, said he was cheered by the response from governments coming forward with funding to fight the outbreak.

“It’s not just the funding, it is human spirit which we see, that is fighting this virus, that is coming more strongly,” he added. “I am really encouraged in the last week or so with the solid level of solidarity I see.”

Reporting by John Revill and Emma Farge; Editing by Pravin Char, Gareth Jones, William Maclean from Reuters