Geneva, July 8: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday, July 7, acknowledged "evidence emerging" that COVID-19 can spread by air, after some scientists urged the global health watchdog to update its guidelines on how COVID-19 spreads between people. Coronavirus Airborne, WHO Must Revise Recommendations, Claim 239 Scientists From 32 Countries: Report.

Dr Maria Van Kerkove, technical lead on COVID-19 pandemic at WHO, said, "We have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission as one of the modes of transmission of COVID-19." Mitigate Airborne Spread of COVID-19, 239 Scientists Urge WHO.

Kerkove said that the possibility of airborne transmission in public places which are crowded, closed or poorly ventilated cannot be ruled out. "However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this," she said.

The WHO also noted that the respiratory disease is "accelerating" and its peak is yet to come. “It took 12 weeks for the world to reach 400,000 COVID-19 cases. Over the weekend, there were more than 400,000 cases across the globe,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news briefing.

According to Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker, the infection cases globally has reached 11,798,678, while the death toll is 543,535. The maximum number of cases have been reported in the United States, followed by Brazil, India and Russia.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 08, 2020 08:49 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).