The United Nations has said that coronavirus is worse than the crisis experienced during World War II.

This was disclosed after the deaths recorded due to the virus in America surpassed that recorded in China where it was first discovered.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed fears that the crisis could lead to conflicts around the world.

Guterres said that the scale of the crisis was due to

“A disease that represents a threat to everybody in the world and… an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past.”

“The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“A stronger and more effective response… is only possible in solidarity if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake,” Guterres added.

“We are far from having a global package to help the developing world to create the conditions both to suppress the disease and to address the dramatic consequences,” Guterres warned, pointing to unemployment and the the collapse of small firms.

“We are slowly moving in the right direction, but we need to speed up, and we need to do much more if we want to defeat the virus.”