Geneva, OCT 5 – The WHO estimated Monday that 10 percent of the world has been infected by the new coronavirus — way more than has been recorded — as it mulled speeding up internal reforms.

To date, more than 35 million cases of Covid-19 have been registered worldwide, including some 1.04 million who have died.

But the World Health Organization now estimates that around a tenth of the planet’s 7.8 billion or so people have already been infected since the virus first surfaced in China late last year — more than 20 times the official count.

“Our current best estimate tells us that about 10 percent of the global population may have been infected by this virus,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a special meeting of the agency’s executive board.

He stressed that infection levels varied “from urban to rural, it varies between different groups.”

“But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk,” he warned.