The World Health Organization says the COVID-19 outbreak is accelerating.

That from Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization during Tuesday’s briefing on COVID-19.

He says it took 12 weeks for the world to reach 400,000 cases of COVID-19 and points out that on the weekend there were more than 400 thousand cases across the globe.

The WHO Director General says the world has clearly not reached the peak of the pandemic. There have now been 11.4 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 535,000 lives have been lost.

The total number of cases of COVID-19 in Canada is now 106,167. There have been 8,711 deaths. And almost 70 thousand people have recovered from novel coronavirus.

He also notes that where there has been progress in reducing deaths, countries have implemented targeted actions toward the most vulnerable groups, for example those people living in long-term care facilities.

The Director General reported WHO experts will be traveling to China this weekend to help identify the zoonotic source of the disease. He says their objective is to advance the understanding of animal hosts for COVID-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans.

Dr. Ghebreyesus also says the WHO is deeply concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the global response to HIV. A new WHO survey showed access to HIV medicines has been significantly curtailed as a result of the pandemic.

73 countries have reported that they are at risk of stock-outs of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs). So to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on treatment access, the Director General says WHO recommends all countries prescribe ARVs for longer periods of time.