Don't Delay Reforms to Prepare for Next Pandemic: WHO Chief

The head of the World Health Organization on Monday urged countries to carry out the reforms needed to prepare for the next pandemic and honor a previous commitment to boost financing for the UN health agency.

Speaking at the WHO's annual health assembly weeks after ending the global emergency status for the COVID-19 pandemic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to advance negotiations on preventing the next one, Reuters reported.

"We cannot kick this can down the road," the WHO director general said in a major address to the agency's member states, warning that the next pandemic was bound to "come knocking".

"If we do not make the changes that must be made, then who will? And if we do not make them now, then when?" he said.