World Sees Biggest Single-Day Jump in COVID-19 Cases

As the US and other Western countries take steps toward reopening, the pandemic is still raging in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. "We still have a long way to go in this pandemic," said WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus, per the Guardian. "We are very concerned about rising cases in low- and middle-income countries." He said that in the past 24 hours, 106,000 new coronavirus cases were reported worldwide—the highest single-day total so far. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, global infections are approaching the 5 million mark, with Russia and Brazil now second and third behind the US, which has the most confirmed cases.

At the Wednesday briefing, Ghebreyesus confirmed that the WHO had received a letter from President Trump threatening to permanently withdraw US funding, reports NBC. He said the organization was "looking into it," adding that there would be a "comprehensive" review of the agency's handling of the pandemic, which Trump has strongly criticized. The AP reports that Michael Ryan, the WHO's head of emergencies, warned that the withdrawal of US funding would hit "humanitarian health operations all over the world, in all sorts of fragile and difficult settings." He said the organization would need other partners' help to keep money flowing. He also told reporters that hydroxychloroquine, which Trump says he is taking, should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of clinical trials. (More coronavirus stories.)