NEW DELHI: As the researchers across the world compete against time to find a vaccine for coronavirus, the World Health Organization has said that there might never be a silver bullet for coronavirus.  

“We all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection. However, there's no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Meanwhile, in an Emergency Committee meeting on COVID-19, the WHO said that the outbreak still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.

“The pandemic is a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come," Dr Tedros said, adding that, "Many countries that believed they were past the worst are now grappling with new outbreaks. Some that were less affected in the earliest weeks are now seeing escalating numbers of cases and deaths. And some that had large outbreaks have brought them under control."

Who has asked the countries to strengthen public health surveillance for case identification and contact tracing, including in low-resource, vulnerable, or high-risk settings and to maintain essential health services with sufficient funding, supplies, and human resources.

The death toll due to coronavirus in the world is nearing 7-lakh mark and infected at least 18.1 million people. In India, Coronavirus cases have crossed the 18-lakh mark with more than 38,000 people being killed by the virus till date.