World Health Organization warns with rising cases and deaths related to COVID-19

The head of the World Health Organization warns that countries in the Northern hemisphere are at a ``critical juncture'' with rising cases and deaths.

``The next few months are going to be very tough and some countries are on a dangerous track,'' said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Friday.

``Many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases,'' and he called for immediate action.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on coronavirus, says the U.N. health agency had recorded about 445,000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours; nearly half of those were from Europe.

She says in many cities across Europe, ``the capacity for ICU is going to be reached in the coming weeks.''