"COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic humanity will face," Guterres said on his Twitter account. "As we respond to this health crisis, we need to prepare for the next one."
"On this International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, let’s give this issue the focus, attention, and investment it deserves," the UN chief added.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 280,338,290 people have been infected worldwide and more than 5,416,730 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 250,368,750 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
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