Watch live: World Health Organization holds a press briefing on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak
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World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference on Thursday to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 25.2 million people across the globe.
Last week, the United Nations health agency said that it’s rare, but possible that people who have recovered from Covid-19 could be reinfected as more reports emerge from around the world of reinfection taking place. Though Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said that’s not necessarily a surprise and added that it is unlikely to affect vaccine development.
“People think, ‘Oh, this means a vaccine won’t work.’ That’s not what this means,” she said. “We’re still developing vaccines, and there’s incredible progress being made on this.”
Earlier this month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while a vaccine will be a “vital tool” in the global fight against the virus, it won’t end the pandemic on its own and there’s no guarantee scientists will find one.
He added that countries and the public must find a way to bring their outbreaks under control and within a manageable level.
Read CNBC’s live updates to see the latest news on the Covid -19 outbreak.
— CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.
