The World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies chief warned Wednesday the second year of the coronavirus pandemic may be tougher than the first, at least in the first few months. Patients are seen lying on hospital beds inside a temporary ward for possible COVID-19 coronavirus patients at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, Jan. 11, 2021. He said in the last week it picked up again, with 5 million cases added globally and 85,000 deaths. WHO technical specialist Maria Van Kerkhove said she also expects the post-holiday surge in cases to make the situation much worse in some countries before it gets better. Van Kerkhove said the important thing to remember is that the world situation is much better than it was at the beginning of the pandemic.

Source: Ethiopian News January 13, 2021 20:26 UTC