Over 160,000 coronavirus cases reported every day in past week: WHO

GENEVA: The global coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, pointing out that June saw more than half of all cases reported since the start of the pandemic.

"For the past week, the number of the new cases has exceeded 160,000 on every single day," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing.

"Sixty percent of all cases so far have been reported just in the past month," he said.

With over 511,000 deaths and more than 10.5 million known infections worldwide, the coronavirus pandemic is "not even close to being over", the WHO warned earlier this week.

Tedros reiterated that taking a "comprehensive approach" was the best way to rein in the virus.

Countries that have implemented a wide range of measures, including contact tracing, isolation, physical distancing and mask wearing "have suppressed transmission and saved lives", he said.

The UN health agency was therefore very concerned, he said, to see that a number of countries "have not used all the tools at their disposal and have taken a fragmented approach.

"These countries face a long, hard road ahead," he said.

He stressed that while the pandemic posed a scientific challenge, "it's also a test of character".