WHO chief hopes pandemic may be defeated in less than two years
Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed hope in the world’s efforts to defeat the novel coronavirus pandemic within the next two years during a press briefing in Geneva. He noted that among the reasons the virus was able to spread so quickly was due to technologies facilitating better connectedness between communities. However, he expressed faith in national unity and global cooperation in utilizing these very technologies to not only stymy the contagion but also develop tools like vaccines to eradicate the virus.
Country roundup: coronavirus situation
31 fresh cases emerged overnight in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, taking the total confirmed cases in the region to 21,400 of which 14,101 have managed to recover so far. With no new casualties reported for the same day, the death toll remains at 454. Islamabad Capital Territory has lost a total of 175 lives to the infectious disease till date.
In Punjab, 158 COVID-19 infections and two fatalities were recorded on August 21, while 901 patients recovered overnight. The province has suffered 2,188 case fatalities so far and currently has 4,923 active cases.
Meanwhile, in Sindh, seven succumbed to the novel coronavirus disease in the past 24 hours, raising the provincial death toll to 2,357. 310 new infections were reported in the same time frame, 119 managed to recover, bringing total recoveries in Sindh to 120,876.