WHO warns some nations still face "long, hard" battle with COVID-19

WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan told the same briefing that the U.N. body planned to send two experts from its headquarters to join its country team in China to establish the scope for a mission looking into the origins of the coronavirus.

Nations who fail to use all mechanisms available to combat the still-raging coronavirus will struggle to beat it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. "Some countries ... have taken a fragmented approach. These countries face a long, hard road ahead," Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

More than 10.5 million people have been infected globally and more than half a million have died since the COVID-19 disease first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan told the same briefing that the U.N. body planned to send two experts from its headquarters to join its country team in China to establish the scope for a mission looking into the origins of the coronavirus.