WHO "Economic Cost of 444 Trillion Won per Month Due to COVID-19"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The World Health Organization (WHO) has analyzed that the global economic cost due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) exceeds $375 billion (approximately 444.2 trillion KRW) per month.

On the 13th (local time), according to WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, cited International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics during a virtual press briefing and stated, "The pandemic has caused this scale of damage worldwide every month," and added, "The cumulative loss over two years is estimated to reach $12 trillion."

Director-General Ghebreyesus explained, "The world has already spent trillions of dollars in the short term to respond to the pandemic," and "The Group of Twenty (G20) alone mobilized more than $10 trillion in stimulus measures. This is more than three and a half times the scale of the response during the global financial crisis."

However, Director-General Ghebreyesus emphasized that the best stimulus investment the world can make is to invest in the WHO-led 'Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.' He urged support for the ACT Accelerator and its component, the global vaccine supply mechanism 'COVAX,' stating, "Nine vaccine candidates are already included in the COVAX portfolio and are undergoing Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trials."

On the same day, WHO expressed that there is insufficient information to assess the COVID-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V,' which Russia announced as the world's first registered vaccine. Bruce Aylward, WHO Senior Advisor to the Director-General, said, "We are in discussions with Russia to obtain additional information and to understand the status of the product, the clinical trials conducted, and the next steps."

Regarding recent concerns that COVID-19 could spread through food packaging, Michael Ryan, WHO Executive Director for Emergency Preparedness and Response, stated, "There is no evidence that food or the process of consuming food is involved in the transmission of this virus," and added, "There is no need to fear food, packaging, food processing, or delivery."

Earlier, Chinese media reported that authorities confirmed the presence of the COVID-19 virus on packaging of imported frozen seafood and frozen chicken wings from Brazil.