Almost all new infections coming from Europe and US — WHO

Some 85% of new infections of COVID-19 are coming from Europe and the United States, the World Health Organization says, as the number of cases swiftly nears 400,000.

The death toll from the virus is at least 17,156 according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, which also says there have been over 392,000 cases since the start of the outbreak.

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris cites a “glimmer of hope” in hard-hit Italy after two days of slight declines in the number of new cases and deaths, while cautioning it’s “early days yet” — and the trend needed to be monitored.

Still, Harris says the scope of the global outbreak is “enormous” and that cases are expected to increase “considerably.”

“Just to put it in proportion: It took two years in the worst Ebola outbreak we ever had, the West African outbreak, to reach 11,000 deaths,” Harris says.

— with AP