We are not about to store the hydroalcoholic gel in the medicine cabinet. - NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

The World Health Organization (WHO), meeting Saturday in Geneva, warned that the coronavirus pandemic was probably going to be "very long". The organization's Emergency Committee, which has met since Friday for the fourth time to reassess the pandemic, "stressed that its duration was certainly going to be very long," said WHO in a statement.

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“The WHO continues to estimate that the risk posed by Covid-19 is very high,” the statement added. “The emergency committee” (made up of 18 members and 12 advisers) “stressed the importance of a response which must be national, regional and global” in the face of the pandemic. The coronavirus has infected at least 17.6 million people worldwide and killed more than 680,000, according to a count made by AFP from official sources.

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The emergency committee called on WHO to provide all countries with pragmatic guidance on how to respond to the pandemic, "to reduce the risk of responses to the epidemic weakening, in a context socio-economic pressures ”. The committee also recommends that the WHO accelerate research on the still unknown points of the virus, in particular its animal origin and its possible means of propagation by animal means. He also asks that points such as "the modes of transmission [of the virus], its potential mutations, immunity and correlates of protection" be clarified.

The committee meeting, which lasted six hours, took place at WHO headquarters in Geneva, with some participants linked by video. It is scheduled to meet again in three months. "This pandemic is a health crisis such as we only see in a century and its effects will be felt for decades to come," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. "Many scientific questions have been resolved, many are still waiting to be resolved," he added. "Most people on the planet can be affected, even those who do not live in hard-hit areas."

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