More than 500 million cases of COVID-19 have been registered worldwide since the start of the pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections has exceeded 500 million since the start of the pandemic.

Globally, as of Thursday night, there have been more than half a billion confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6.19 million deaths reported to WHO, according to the organization.

Also, since the onset of the coronavirus, the regions of the world that have registered the most infections have been Europe, with more than 200 million cases; America, with 150 million positive ones, and Southeast Asia, with 58 million infected.

Africa, for its part, is the region where the coronavirus has had the least incidence, since it does not reach even two percent of cases worldwide.

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Despite this, WHO suspects that there are a large number of cases that have not been reported. The organization has indicated that there could be up to 97 times more people infected than the figures reported by the authorities of each country reflect.

NEW TESTS

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this Thursday for the first time a COVID-19 test that is done by blowing.

The so-called InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer detects the chemical components that exist in the breath samples that are taken and that are associated with that disease, the FDA explained in a statement.

The test is done by blowing into a tube that is connected to a device that is shaped like a balloon and that captures the sample.

The FDA explained that this type of test can be done in places such as clinics, hospitals and mobile sites for covid testing, under the supervision of specialized personnel, and it takes three minutes to produce a result.

An FDA official, Jeff Shuren, said in the note that today’s authorization “is another example of rapid innovation on COVID-19 testing.”

The new test uses a technique called Gas Chromatography Coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS), which serves to separate and identify combined chemicals and that quickly detects five volatile organic compounds linked to COVID infection.

When the test finds the presence of markers of these organic compounds, it gives a positive result, which, according to the FDA, should then be confirmed by a molecular test.

(With information from Europa Press)

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