WHO hopes Coronavirus pandemic could be over within two years

The World Health Organization hopes the coronavirus crisis will be over in less than two years, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Speaking in Geneva on Friday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Spanish flu of 1918 took two years to overcome. The deadly flu of 1918 killed at least 50 million people.

"Our situation now with more technology, of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast," added the WHO chief.

"But at the same time, we have also the technology to stop it, and the knowledge to stop it," he noted.

He said that by "utilising the available tools to the maximum and hoping that we can have additional tools like vaccines, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu".

By "utilising the available tools to the maximum and hoping that we can have additional tools like vaccines, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu", he said.

The WHO has also recommended that children over 12 should wear masks in the same contexts as adults in the bid to curb the spread of the virus.

"Children aged 12 and over should wear a mask under the same conditions as adults, in particular when they cannot guarantee at least a one-metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area," the UN health agency said in fresh guidelines developed in cooperation with UNICEF.

In strong remarks, he said that corruption which deprives health workers of appropriate PPE threatened not only their lives, but also the lives of their patients suffering from Covid-19.

Mr Tedros branded the corruption around personal protective gear (PPE) for coronavirus as "murder".

The Covid-19 pandemic has to date killed nearly 800,000 people and infected close to 23 million worldwide, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

The coronavirus has so far killed almost 800,000 people and infected 22.7 million more