COVID-19 infections growing exponentially, deaths near 50,000 - WHO

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) voiced deep concern on Wednesday about "the rapid escalation and global spread" of COVID-19 infections with the new coronavirus, which has now reached 205 countries and territories.

"In the past 5 weeks there has been a near exponential growth in the number of new cases and the number of deaths has more than doubled in past week," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, told a virtual news conference in Geneva.

"In the next few days we will reach 1 million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths worldwide," Tedros said.