Covid-19 will stalk the planet for a long time to come, the World Health Organization has said, warning that most countries are still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.
WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some countries that thought they had the new coronavirus under control were witnessing a resurgence in cases, while there were troubling upward trends in Africa and the Americas.
He also insisted that the UN health agency had declared a global emergency in good time on 30 January for countries to prepare and plan their response.
The body has been heavily criticised by the United States for its handling of the pandemic, but Mr Tedros brushed off calls for him to resign.
"Most of the epidemics in western Europe appear to be stable or declining," Mr Tedros told a virtual press conference in Geneva.
"Although numbers are low, we see worrying upward trends in Africa, Central and South America, and eastern Europe.
"Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases.
"Make no mistake, we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time."
More than 180,000 people in the world have died from the coronavirus, nearly two-thirds of them in Europe, since it emerged in China last December, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.
In total, almost 2,600,000 infections have been recorded, according to the latest tally.
Mr Tedros was pressed on whether the WHO had acted swiftly enough.
"Looking back, I think we declared the emergency at the right time" on 30 January, he said, adding that the world "had enough time to respond".
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Meanwhile, the EU's top diplomat has said that any apportioning of blame could threaten international co-operation to confront the coronavirus pandemic.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's comments came as Australia seeks support for an inquiry into the origins of the outbreak.
"The priority has to be facing the pandemic, saving lives, containing this spread. We will only defeat the pandemic through global efforts and co-operation, and this co-operation cannot be jeopardised by blaming one or the other about the origins," Mr Borrell told a video news conference.
Australia's push for an independent review of the origins and spread of the pandemic, including the response of the WHO, has drawn sharp criticism from China.
Elsewhere, one of the top health officials in the US has warned that a second wave of the novel coronavirus there could be even more destructive because it will likely collide with the beginning of flu season.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called on Americans to use the coming months to prepare and get their flu shots.
"There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," he was quoted as saying in an interview with the Washington Post.
"We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time," he said.
The US has recorded more than 800,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, with almost 47,000 deaths, the most reported of any country.
Billions of people around the world have been ordered to stay at home in recent months as governments try to prevent the highly contagious coronavirus from overwhelming healthcare systems.
Mr Redfield said the virus arrived in the US just as regular flu season, which itself can strain healthcare systems, was waning.
If the two diseases had peaked at the same time, he said, "it could have been really, really, really, really difficult" for health systems to cope.
Getting a flu shot ahead of next flu season, he said, "may allow there to be a hospital bed available for your mother or grandmother that may get coronavirus".
