COVID-19 cases worldwide hit 12 million

Health UN

10 July 2020

COVID-19 cases globally have more than doubled in the past six weeks, reaching 12 million on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported.

“Across all walks of life, we are all being tested to the limit”, agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists, adding that there is still a lot of work to be done.

walks of life：各行各业，各界

“From countries where there is exponential growth, to places that are loosening restrictions and now starting to see cases rise. We need leadership, community participation and collective solidarity. Only aggressive action combined with national unity and global solidarity can turn this pandemic around”, he said.

exponential growth：指数增长

exponential adj./ˌekspəˈnenʃl/  1.指数的；幂的；由指数表示的·an exponential curve/function 指数曲线╱函数 2. 越来越快的 •exponential growth/increase 越来越快的增长

Tedros cited examples from across the globe which show that even where the outbreak has been intense, it can still be brought under control.

“And some of these examples are Italy, Spain and South Korea, and even in Dharavi – a densely packed area in the megacity of Mumbai – a strong focus on community engagement and the basics of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all those that are sick is key to breaking the chains of transmission and suppressing the virus”, he said.

Dharavi:孟买一个人口密集的区  Mumbai：孟买

suppress /səˈprɛs/

1.V-T If someone in authority suppresses an activity, they prevent it from continuing, by using force or making it illegal. 镇压; 压制

2.V-T If a natural function or reaction of your body is suppressed, it is stopped, for example by drugs or illness. 抑制 (身体功能或反应)

3.V-T If you suppress your feelings or reactions, you do not express them, even though you might want to. 抑制 (情感或反应)

4.V-T If someone suppresses a piece of information, they prevent other people from learning it. 封锁（信息）•  At no time did they try to persuade me to suppress the information. 他们从未试图劝我封锁这个消息。

5.V-T If someone or something suppresses a process or activity, they stop it continuing or developing. 阻止 (活动); 抑制 (过程)•  The government is suppressing inflation by increasing interest rates. 政府正通过提高利率来抑制通货膨胀。

‘Always a risk’

WHO has consistently advised countries coming out of lockdowns to remain vigilant.

Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, said that advice includes opening up slowly and in phases, waiting between each stage, “and to accept the fact that in our current situation, it is very unlikely that we can eradicate or eliminate this virus.”

He pointed out that even in countries that have achieved zero cases of COVID-19, or near zero cases, the disease has resurfaced.

“There is always a risk: either from within, or from bringing disease back in. And therefore, it is a given that there is always a risk of further cases”, he said.

vigilant adj. /ˈvɪdʒɪlənt/  警觉的；警惕的；警戒的；谨慎

eradicate v. /ɪˈrædɪkeɪt/  [ VN ] ~ sth (from sth) to destroy or get rid of sth completely, especially sth bad 根除；消灭；杜绝

eliminate v. /ɪˈlɪmɪneɪt/  

1.[ VN ] ~ sth/sb (from sth) to remove or get rid of sth/sb 排除；清除；消除 

•The police have eliminated two suspects from their investigation. 警方通过调查已经排除了两名嫌疑犯。

•This diet claims to eliminate toxins from the body. 这种饮食据称具有排除体内毒素的作用。

2.[ VN ] ~ sb (from sth) [ usually passive ] to defeat a person or a team so that they no longer take part in a competition, etc. （比赛中）淘汰

•All the English teams were eliminated in the early stages of the competition. 所有英格兰队伍在比赛初期就被淘汰了。

3. 消灭，干掉（尤指敌人或对手）

resurface v. /ˌriːˈsɜːfɪs/  1.再次浮出，再次露出（水面或地面）；2.重铺路面

Support for smokers

The world’s first digital health worker is ready to help millions of people quit smoking and reduce the risk of being infected by COVID-19.

“Florence” is the computer-generated face of the Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco, announced on Friday by WHO and partners.

Using Artificial Intelligence, she will help smokers develop personalized plans to quit tobacco, while also dispelling myths around COVID-19 and smoking.

dispel /dɪˈspɛl/  V-T To dispel an idea or feeling that people have means to stop them having it. 消除 (想法或感觉)

Smokers are at higher risk of COVID-19 because they are constantly putting their hands to their mouths.

If infected, they are more likely to develop a severe case of the disease, according to Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director of WHO’s Department of Ethics and Social Determinants of Health.

“That’s why, at the moment, we know that 680 million people want to quit smoking, and we know that 400 million will try to stop smoking: and that’s the good news”, he said.

“With today’s initiative, we hope that we will be successful in really helping 20 million to succeed in this.”

Florence is available 24/7 via video stream or text. She was created with technology developed by Soul Machines, a company based in the United States and New Zealand, with support from Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

The initiativewill be launched initially in Jordan, with global roll-out scheduled over the coming months.

The initiative：新方案    Jordan：约旦     roll-out：新产品发布会；新产品的推出

Panel on pandemic response established

An Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) has been established to evaluate the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Panel这里指的是 专家小组，咨询组 ，我们常见的是嵌板的意思

preparedness n. /prɪˈpeərɪdnəs/ ~ to do sth ( formal ) the state of being ready or willing to do sth 准备好的状态；愿意

WHO Member States meeting in May, adopted a landmark resolution that called on the UN agency to initiate an independent and comprehensive evaluation of lessons learned from the international health response to the crisis.

The IPPR will be led by two co-chairs: Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and a past head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Liberia/laɪˈbɪəriə/：利比里亚

Operating independently, they will choose other members of the panel, whose size has yet to be determined.

The co-chairs will also select members of an independent secretariat that will support the panel.

secretariat n. /ˌsekrəˈteəriət/  /‑iæt/  大型国际组织、政治组织的）秘书处，书记处

原文链接：https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1068161