The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has issued a stern warning that nations should not become complacent in the fight against the coronavirus. He said this would be disastrous because the disease “will be with us for a long time”.

He also warned of the recent upward trends in Covid-19 cases in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central America and South America. Dr Tedros added that lifting lockdowns could cause infections to reignite.

Answering critics that the WHO had not handled the situation well he said:

“Looking back I think we declared the emergency at the right time and when the world had enough time to respond,” he said during a daily briefing in Geneva. The WHO declared Covid-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January and said it had become a pandemic on 11 March.