A senior WHO official said on Monday it will take "a change in mindset" to overcome supply shortages in things such as protective equipment and test kits to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have to now seriously scale it up. It needs to become industrialised to a degree," said Paul Molinaro, in charge of operations, support and logistics at the World Health Organization in response to a question about how countries can ramp up their efforts to fight the virus amid the shortages.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also told journalists he was working with the private sector to increase production of protective equipment, describing the current shortage as a "market failure".
WHO CHIEF CALLS FOR WIDESPREAD VIRUS TESTING
The head of the World Health Organization called Monday for every suspected coronavirus case to be tested, as countries across Europe tightened their lockdowns and global stock markets tumbled again.
"You cannot fight a fire while blindfolded," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists. "Test, test, test. Test every suspected case."
The virus is spreading rapidly, forcing governments to impose restrictions rarely seen outside wartime -- closing borders, ordering home quarantine and scrapping public events including major sporting fixtures.
Tedros said more cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China, where COVID-19 first emerged in December before crisscrossing the globe.
"This is the defining global health crisis of our time," he told reporters. "Crises like this tend to bring out the best and worst of humanity."
Worldwide, the number of deaths has passed 6,500 with more than 168,000 infections in 142 countries.
