COVID-19: WHO warns some nations still face 'long and hard' battle with pandemic

World Health Organisation (WHO) on June 1 warned that the countries that are not taking to the COVID-19 pandemic seriously and refusing to allocate resources to combat the health emergency will face a ‘long and hard road ahead’.

As per reports, during an online briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused some nations of adopting a fragmented approach in combating the novel coronavirus.

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Unprepared countries will have a 'long road ahead'

According to reports, the WHO Director-General further added that as some countries were easing lockdown restrictions and moving towards reopening the country, local flareups of COVID-19 were inevitable. However, he added that the countries which had taken prior precautions and were ready would be able to successfully contain these local flareups without having to reimpose a nationwide lockdown.

COVID-19 has infected about 10,538,577 people worldwide and the global death toll has crossed the 500,000 mark according to the John Hopkins University coronavirus resource centre. The United States is currently the global epicentre of the virus having reported 2,658,324 positive coronavirus cases and more than 125,000 deaths.

The novel coronavirus first appeared in China late last year and the country has been heavily criticised for its role in allegedly keeping the origin and pandemic potential of COVID-19 a secret from the world. While it is believed that the virus originated t a wet market in Wuhan, some leaders believe the virus was manufactured in a Wuhan laboratory.

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WHO to send a team to China

The WHO has revealed that it is planning to send a team to China to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in the hope of being better able to fight the spread of the virus. Tedros did not specify the make-up of the team, or what specifically its mission was.

“Knowing the source of the virus is very, very important,” the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference on Monday. “We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started. We will be sending a team next week to China to prepare for that and we hope that that will lead to understanding how the virus started,” he added.

(Image Credit AP)

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