WHO: Complacency is now the 'biggest threat' we face with the coronavirus
- Global daily numbers of new coronavirus infections are at an all-time high, even as some countries are celebrating low infection rates.
- The WHO said Monday that the "biggest threat now is complacency."
- As more restaurants, bars, and offices reopen, being careful about keeping a safe distance, making interactions short, tracing contacts of new coronavirus cases, and continuing with hand-washing and mask-wearing will all be key.
From Ohio to Texas, Brazil, and Guatemala, many places are dealing with their all-time highest numbers of coronavirus infections. The World Health Organization said on Monday that the bulk of new cases are being diagnosed now "in the Americas and South Asia."
But even as daily coronavirus case numbers are soaring to never-before-seen highs, there are flickers of good news for infection rates in certain spots.
"We're encouraged that several countries around the world are seeing positive signs," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, in a nod to the low number of cases now in Western Europe, and the recent zeroing out of coronavirus infections completely in New Zealand, where the prime minister said she "did a little dance" to celebrate the feat.
Tedros urged those countries where infections are relatively low now to remain on alert.
"In these countries, the biggest threat now is complacency," he said.
The US's leading infectious disease expert, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, agreed.
"Oh my goodness," Dr. Fauci said Tuesday during a biotech conference. "Where is it going to end? We're still at the beginning of it."
Most people are still vulnerable to catching the coronavirus
Blood tests done around the globe suggest that fewer than 1 in 10 people alive have had the coronavirus so far, so there is still a lot of potential for new waves of infection to spread, with deadly consequences.
"Most people, globally, are still susceptible to infection," Tedros said. "We continue to urge active surveillance to ensure the virus does not rebound, especially as mass gatherings of all kinds are starting to resume in some countries."
Outdoor gatherings are better than being indoors, where there is less airflow to disperse the virus. Engaging with a few people is better than being in a crowd. More space is better than less, and keeping interactions short also helps tamp down the spread of this virus.
As coronavirus restrictions have been lifted in certain spots around the world, new clusters of infections have recently popped up at nightclubs and restaurants from Seoul to Guangzhou — indications that the virus can pass easily between people, and often before the spreaders even know they're infected.
"You could be in the restaurant, feeling perfectly well, and start to get a fever," WHO's Executive Director of Health Emergencies Mike Ryan said Tuesday during a Q&A on asymptomatic coronavirus spreaders.
"There is this period of time when, you know, even a professor of infectious diseases themselves wouldn't know that 'I'm getting COVID,'" Ryan added, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus, COVID-19.
For this reason, the US Centers for Disease Control has created a few basic recommendations for how to manage risk when dining out, or when reopening offices.
Staying outside, keeping your interactions with other people brief, and standing or sitting a good distance away from others doesn't completely nix your risk of contracting the coronavirus.
Contact tracing, quarantining close contacts of sick people, good hand hygiene, and personal protective equipment like masks and shields can also play a role to halt viral spread in a community.
"It's hard to stop this virus," Ryan said, still stressing that it's not an altogether impossible task. "We've seen that with the physical measures, social distancing, we've seen it with surveillance. You put all of these things together and you just double down on your bets and say, we're going to do everything ... This is not an easy virus to stop, but we have to do our best."