COVID-19 pandemic is still accelerating, says WHO chief

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday in an online conference that the COVID-19 pandemic is still accelerating and it is more than a health crises.  

"The pandemic is still accelerating...we know that the pandemic is much more than a health crisis, it's an economic crisis, a social crisis and in many countries a political crisis. Its effects will be felt for decades to come," he said. 

As of Monday, nearly nine million people around the world have contracted COVID-19 with more than 468,500 patients who have died from the disease, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.

(Cover: AFP file photo)