Combating COVID-19: WHO to hold emergency committee meeting on Thursday

"I will convene the emergency tomorrow because it is almost three months since we declared the highest emergency and that was what was suggested by the emergency committee -- to reconvene three months after the declaration to evaluate the evolution of the pandemic and advise on updated recommendations," Tedros said in the virtual briefing on COVID-19.

The World Health Orgsation (WHO) will convene an emergency meeting on coronavirus on Thursday, said its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday.

"I will convene the emergency tomorrow because it is almost three months since we declared the highest emergency and that was what was suggested by the emergency committee -- to reconvene three months after the declaration to evaluate the evolution of the pandemic and advise on updated recommendations," Tedros said in the virtual briefing on COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Michael Ryan said that he hopes that the much talked about drug -- remdesevir -- and other drugs prove helpful in COVID-19 treatment.

"I would not like to make any specific comment on that because I haven't read those publications in detail," Ryan told a virtual daily briefing when asked to comment on the latest study of remdesivir published in The Lancet journal.

"We have a scientific review process in the house where we do systematic reviews at various times on different aspects of the response, especially on drug efficacy and the efficacy of other interventions," he added.

WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11.

As per the latest data, more than 3,150,000 coronavirus cases have been recorded globally, according to the statistics collected by Johns Hopkins University.

( With inputs from ANI )