One billion people worldwide may be infected with the coronavirus

One billion people worldwide may be infected with the coronavirus

One billion people worldwide could be infected with the coronavirus unless vulnerable countries receive immediate help, a relief group has warned.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said financial and humanitarian assistance was needed to reduce the global spread of the virus.

It said "fragile countries" such as Afghanistan and Syria needed "urgent funding" to avoid a major outbreak.

"There remains a small window of time to mount a robust response," it warned.

According to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, there have been more than 3 million confirmed cases of covid 19 with more than 200,000 deaths worldwide.

The IRC report, based on models and data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College London, estimates that there could be between 500 million and 1 billion infections worldwide.

It also said there could be more than 3 million deaths in dozens of conflict-affected and unstable countries.

"These numbers should serve as a wake-up call," said the head of the IRC, David Miliband.

"The full, devastating and disproportionate weight of this pandemic has yet to be felt in the world's most fragile and war-torn countries," he added. "The key now is for donors to urgently put flexible funding behind frontline efforts.

"Governments must work together to remove any impediment to humanitarian assistance."

The US-based group, which responds to humanitarian crises around the world, said factors such as household size, population density, healthcare coverage and pre-existing conflicts could all increase the risk of outbreaks.

Many countries in the developing world have low official infection rates or deaths. But the actual number is thought to be much higher.

Caroline Saguin, who runs the programmes for medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Yemen, says the organization believes people there are dying not only in hospitals but also at home under Covid-19.

"We are convinced that there is local transmission ongoing but the capacity of testing is very, very low," she told the BBC.

Referring to Yemen's IRC report, which is particularly at risk from the corona virus, Ms Seguin said the recent cholera and measles epidemics had weakened the country.

"The health system is collapsing... and for sure the ministry of health is not able to cope with this disease," she said.

One of the major problems facing developing or unstable countries is the lack of suitable medical equipment for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have less than ten ventilators for every one million people. In Nigeria, that number is 0.8 ventilator per million.

Italy, which has one of the highest virus deaths in the world, had 80 ventilators per million people at the beginning of the crisis.