67 days to infect first 1 lakh people, just 4 days for third 1 lakh cases: How the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating

Amid the rising coronavirus cases across the globe, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday (March 23) warned that the coronavirus pandemic is “accelerating” but it was still possible to “change the trajectory” of the outbreak of deadly virus.

The WHO remarks came at a time when the number of deaths across the world crossed 16,000, with over 3.78 lakh infected worldwide. "The pandemic is accelerating," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual news briefing.

According to WHO chief, it took 67 days from the start of outbreak in China's Wuhan in December to infect the 100,000 people worldwide. The pandemic, however, spread rapidly after that as it took 11 days for the second 100,000 cases and merely four days for the third 100,000 cases.

China had officially declared first case of coronavirus on December 31, 2019 and coronavirus cases hit the 100,000 mark on March 6, 200,000 on March 17 and 300,000 on March 21.

Experts maintain that the number of coronavirus positive cases across the world  represent only a fraction of the true number of infections because in many countries only people who are in need of hospitalisation are being tested for COVID-19.

"We are not helpless bystanders. We can change the trajectory of this pandemic," Tedros said.

Thw WHO chief called for a mixed approach, just like a football match, after he launched a campaign with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to spread the message of how to protect against infection "to kick out coronavirus." "You can't win a football game only by defending. You have to attack as well," he said.

"Asking people to stay at home and other physical distancing measures are an important way of slowing down the spread of the virus and buying time, but they are defensive measures that will not help us to win," he warned.

"To win, we need to attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics," he said, reiterating a call for "testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case and tracing and quarantining every close contact."

Tedros, however, noted that many countries were still unable to talk aggressive measures to combat coronavirus due to lack of resources and access to tests. He also said that several people are currently involved in finding a vaccine and of drugs to treat COVID-19.

But he said that "there is currently no treatment that has been proven to be effective against COVID-19," and warned against the use of drugs not proven to work against the disease.

"Using untested medicines without the right evidence could raise false hope and even do more harm than good, and cause a shortage of essential medicines that are needed to treat other diseases," he said.