The head of the World Health Organization has warned that many countries are not handling the coronavirus pandemic properly.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Monday that 230,000 cases of COVID-19 were reported to the organization on Sunday.

He said "too many countries are headed in the wrong direction."

He also warned that "if governments do not roll out a comprehensive strategy focused on suppressing transmission and saving lives, the pandemic is going to get worse and worse and worse."

The WHO chief added that there will be no return to the "old normal" for the foreseeable future.

The coronavirus pandemic will get "worse and worse" if governments fail to take more decisive action, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "too many countries [were] headed in the wrong direction".

Cases were rising where proven measures were not adopted or followed, he added.

The Americas are the current epicentre of the pandemic. The US has seen a rise in cases amid tensions between health experts and President Donald Trump.

The US, the worst affected country, has over 3.3 million confirmed cases and more than 135,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

What has the WHO said?

At a briefing in Geneva on Monday, Dr Tedros said "mixed messages from leaders" were undermining public trust in attempts to bring the pandemic under control.

"The virus remains public enemy number one, but the actions of many governments and people do not reflect this," he said.

Dr Tedros said measures such as social distancing, hand washing, and wearing masks in appropriate situations needed to be taken seriously, warning that there would be "no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future".

The head of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, Michael Ryan, referred to countries in North and South Americas where the virus continues to rage. He suggested that limited lockdowns may be required in specific areas where transmission is out of control.

He also referred to a two-member advance team that the WHO sent to China to lay the ground for a study into how the coronavirus began spreading there.

Ryan said that the two experts are in quarantine at the moment, and that they are already working with Chinese health authorities remotely.

He said the advance team will "lay out what the main questions, what the approach, what the studies that are going to be needed by a much larger international team that will work in collaboration with the Chinese colleagues over the coming weeks and months."

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters on Monday that the two WHO experts had arrived in China for research on the source of the coronavirus.

But she did not elaborate on the schedule of their activity in the country.

BBC/NHK