WHO: The US may become the next global epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the United States could become the next global epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic, which earlier today delayed the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

The UK, like many other countries, has also taken serious measures to curb the contagion, and data shows that business activity is already collapsing from Australia and Japan to Western European countries at record rates in March, with such a thing expected to happen and in the US.

“The coronavirus epidemic is a major external shock to a macro-perspective, similar to a major natural disaster”, said analysts at the BlackRock Investment Institute.

But amid the spread of COVID-19 to countries in the west, Hubei, China, where the virus was first identified in December, said it would remove travel restrictions for people leaving the region as the epidemic is already under control.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide exceeds 390,000, with the infection spreading to 194 countries and territories. The deaths from the disease exceed 16,500 cases.

In Geneva, WHO spokesman Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters that the United States has “very high acceleration” in the number of people infected.

In the last 24 hours, 85% of new cases worldwide were registered in Europe and the US, and 40% of them were in the US, whereas of Monday the number of infected was 42,000. There were 559 death cases.