The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday issued a warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is not even close to being over.
"Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a media briefing.
"We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up," he added.
Ghebreyesus also noted that the world had reached the unwelcome milestone of 10 million infections and 500,000 deaths six months after China first alerted the global health body to the novel coronavirus.
The head of the WHO's emergencies programme, Mike Ryan said that while a lot of progress had been made in the search for a vaccine, there was still no guarantee the effort would succeed.
He once again emphasised that the best tactic to fight the virus is testing, isolating confirmed cases and tracking their contacts. He also praised Japan, South Korea and Germany for their "comprehensive, sustained strategy" against the coronavirus.
