The WHO chief also insisted that the UN health agency had declared a global emergency in good time on January 30 for countries to prepare and plan their response.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquaters in Geneva. (Photo: AFP)
The World Health Organisation director-general Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros on Wednesday said, COVID-19 will stalk the planet for a long time to come and warned most countries were still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.
Some countries that thought they had the new coronavirus under control were witnessing a resurgence in cases, while there were troubling upward trends in Africa and the Americas, the director-general added.
He also insisted that the UN health agency had declared a global emergency in good time on January 30 for countries to prepare and plan their response.
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The body has been heavily criticised by the United States for its handling of the pandemic but Tedros brushed off calls for him to resign.
During a virtual press briefing, Tedros said, “Most of the epidemics in western Europe appear to be stable or declining”.
“Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases”, he further said in the briefing.
Tedros also said, “Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time.”
On Monday, Ghebreyesus cautioned countries that have began loosening lockdown laws, saying ‘easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country’.
Meanwhile, the WHO chief called on the United States to reconsider its decision to freeze funding to the organization and hoped that the US will once again support WHO’s work and continue to save lives.
Last week, the US announced a decision to halt its funding to the WHO, at a time when the specialized UN agency for international public health is coordinating a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 1,80,000 people in the world have died from the novel coronavirus, nearly two-thirds of them in Europe, since it emerged in China last December, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.
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