Coronavirus COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, says WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday (April 22) that coronavirus COVID-19 will remain with us for a long time, warning that several countries were still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.

Tedros noted that  some countries that thought they had succeeded in controlling the deadly virus were witnessing a resurgence in cases, while the number of cases are increasing in Africa and the Americas.

According to WHO boss, coronavirus pandemic was declared a global emergency on January 30 at the 'righ ttime' in order to give time to the countries to prepare and plan their response.

"Most of the epidemics in western Europe appear to be stable or declining. Although numbers are low, we see worrying upward trends in Africa, Central and South America, and eastern Europe. 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 said.

"Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time. Looking back, I think we declared the emergency at the right time on January 30," he added.

Referring to US President Donald Trump's decision to suspend funding of the global health body, Tedros expressed hope that the Trump administration would reconsider its decisions, but stressed that he was currently focused on ending the coronavirus pandemic.

"I hope the freezing of the funding will be reconsidered and the US will once again support WHO's work and continue to save lives.I hope the US believes that this an important imvestment, not just to help others but for the US to stay safe also," Tedros said.

The COVID-19 outbreak on Wednesday (April 22, 2020) infected over 26 lakh people around the world and killed around 1.81 lakh people. According to the data provided by Johns Hopkins University as of 10 PM on Wednesday, the global pandemic has infected approximately 26,03,147 people and has taken more than 1,81,235 lives.

The US has been the worst affected county where around 8,34,858 people have contracted the virus that was first reported in China in late December 2019.