WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (Reuters)

“Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases and that’s now leading to hospitals and ICU running close or above capacity and we’re still only in October,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing.

He urged nations to take immediate action to prevent unnecessary deaths, the collapse of essential health systems and the shutdown of economies.

As of 4PM on Saturday, COVID-19 had spread to more than 42.5 million people across the globe since it emerged in late December, killing more than 1.1 million, according to statistics website wordometers.