Pandemic can be overcome quickly with right tools: WHO

[October 12, 2020]  LONDON (Reuters) - The global COVID-19 pandemic can be overcome quickly if countries use the right tools, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Monday, but warned that if those tools were not used it would remain for a long time.

"If we use the tools we have at hand properly, we can end it soon," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the Financial Times' online Africa summit, adding a vaccine was expected late 2020 or early next year.

"If we don't use the tools we have at hand properly, then it could linger with us, it could stay with us for a very long period," he said.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Tommy Wilkes)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.