London: The head of the World Health Organization predicted that the number of people infected by the Coronavirus will hit 20 million this week, including about 750,000 deaths.
In a briefing on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that behind these statistics there is a great deal of pain and suffering but said there were still green shoots of hope no matter what stage in an outbreak a country or region might be.
He offered no new strategies to combat the virus but said again that leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures, pointing to New Zealand as an example for the world. The country recently marked 100 days with no local spread of the virus.
Tedros said that recently adopted measures in countries including Britain and France, which have imposed targeted lockdowns and mask-wearing strategies in the last week, were a good example of specific strategies needed to curb a new upsurge in cases.
Meanwhile, Australia on Monday reported its highest daily Coronavirus deaths with 19 fatalities during the last 24 hours, all in Victoria state, prompting the state premier to acknowledge that the COVID-19 health crisis was the "greatest challenge" faced by the province.
The country also registered 322 new cases of confirmed infections during the same period, the lowest daily increase in the last 12 days.
The Coronavirus has so far claimed 314 lives in Australia with 9,365 active cases. Notably, the jump from 200 to 300 virus deaths has taken just nine days. On August 1, Australia reported its 200th COVID-19 death.
Three people who returned to Singapore from India tested positive for COVID-19, as the city-state reported 188 new Coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the national tally to 55,292.
Singapore's total number of COVID-19 cases rose past 55,000 on Sunday - the country's 55th National Day.
In his National Day message, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore would need unity and resilience more than ever to fight COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health (MOH), in an update on Monday, said that of the new 188 COVID-19 cases, the vast majority were work permit holders currently under quarantine. There were 12 new imported cases, all of whom were placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.
New locally transmitted cases of Coronavirus in China fell to just 14 over the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission reported Monday.
The low figure was offset, however, by 35 cases brought into the country by Chinese travellers from overseas arriving in seven different cities and provinces across the country.
All the cases of local transmission were in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose main city Urumqi is the centre of China's latest outbreak.
Pakistan's Coronavirus tally reached 284,660 with the detection of 539 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Monday.
Fifteen more fatalities due to the disease were reported overnight, pushing the nationwide death toll 6,097.
While 260,764 patients have recovered so far, 776 are in critical condition, the ministry
said.