WHO warns new covid-19 phase is “swift and dangerous”

The global coronavirus death toll had passed half a million by the end of June as the pandemic reached more than 10m cases. The World Health Organization is warning that, while many countries have brought the pandemic under some degree of control, others are seeing it spread at an accelerating rate. It took three months for the first one million people to become infected, but just eight days to clock up the latest million. The fast-climbing rate, especially in the US, is the result of governments relaxing lockdown restrictions too early, say the health experts.

Israel’s coronavirus cabinet meets for the second time on Monday afternoon, June 29, after ministers resisted the Health Ministry’s demand to restore some restrictions on gatherings for functions, entertainment and worship, to curb the sudden rise in covid-19 infection. The Health Minister Yuli Edelstein warned that without those restrictions, the pandemic may in the space of a month spread to the point that renewed lockdowns would be unavoidable. Minister of Finance Yisrael Katz voiced his concern about the high level of unemployment arising from the first lockdowns and the urgent need to reopen all sectors of the economy.

The current figures for Monday are a total of 23,421 cases, of which 6,265 are active. However, the numbers of acute cases stay at a low 39 with only 22 on ventilators.