GENEVA/ZURICH, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The death toll from the
coronavirus could double to 2 million before a successful
vaccine is widely used and could be even higher without
concerted action to curb the pandemic, an official at the World
Health Organization said on Friday.
"Unless we do it, all the number you speak about (2 million
deaths) is not only imaginable, but sadly very likely," Mike
Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said in a briefing
on Friday.
His assessment came as the total number of deaths nine
months since the virus was discovered in China neared the grim
milestone of 1 million.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebenay and Emma Farge in Geneva and
Michael Shields in Zurich; Writing by Josephine Mason in London;
Editing by Hugh Lawson)