The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic 'could even be tougher', Reuters reported referring to the WHO.

“We are going into a second year of this, it could even be tougher given the transmission dynamics and some of the issues that we are seeing,” Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies official, said during an event on social media.

“Certainly in the northern hemisphere, particularly in Europe and North America we have seen that sort of perfect storm of the season - coldness, people going inside, increased social mixing and a combination of factors that have driven increased transmission in many, many countries,” Ryan added.

Meanwhile, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, warned that “after the holidays, in some countries the situation will get a lot worse before it gets better.”