Coronavirus ‘will be with us for a long time’: WHO

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 11, 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. Congressional Republicans on April 16, 2020 urged President Donald Trump to condition US funding for the World Health Organization on the resignation of its chief over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.<br />Seventeen Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said they had “lost faith” in Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s WHO leadership, even as they stressed the organization is vital to tackling the world’s health problems. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

COVID-19 will stalk the planet for a long time to come, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, warning that most countries were still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.

WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 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.

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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