The WHO has asked countries to be "as aggressive as possible" in fighting the newly-named COVID-19 coronavirus.
"If the world doesn't want to wake up and consider the virus as public enemy number one, I don't think we will learn from our lessons," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
"We are still in containment strategy and should not allow the virus to have a space to have local transmission," he said.
WHO says vaccine could be ready in 18 months
The first vaccine targeting the coronavirus could be available in 18 months, "so we have to do everything today using available weapons", WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
He also announced that the new name of the virus would be COVID-19, explaining it was important to avoid stigma and that other names could be inaccurate.
"If we invest now ... we have a realistic chance of stopping this outbreak," Tedros said.
New coronavirus will be named 'Covid-19': WHO
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "COVID-19" would be the new official name for the deadly coronavirus.
"We now have a name for the disease and it's COVID-19," Tedros told reporters in Geneva, explaining that "co" stood for "corona", "vi" for "virus" and "d" for "disease".(FA)
