COVID crisis may get "worse and worse": WHO

"Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from the U.N. agency's headquarters in Geneva on Monday (July 13).

Global infections stand at 13 million, according to a Reuters tally, with more than half a million deaths.

Tedros, whose leadership has been heavily criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump, said that of 230,000 new cases on Sunday (July 12), 80% were from 10 nations, and 50% from just two countries. The United States and Brazil are the countries worst hit.

A WHO advance team has gone to China to investigate the origins of the new coronavirus, first discovered in the city of Wuhan.

The team's members are in quarantine, as per standard procedure before they begin work with Chinese scientists, WHO emergencies head Mike Ryan said.