The World Health Organization(WHO) said it expects clinical test results in the search for a cure for COVID-19 to come out within months.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on the new coronavirus, made this remark during a virtual press briefing held at WHO headquarters in Geneva on Friday.

She said that clinical testing is currently under way involving 25-hundred patients from 15 countries.

She said the WHO Solidarity Trial aims to find a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19 and candidate drugs such as remdesivir and chloroquine are also included.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who also attended the briefing, said the agency has updated its Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for COVID-19 which outlines activities and resources needed by the international community.

He said the plan requires one-point-seven billion dollars by the year's end. Noting they are one-point-three billion short of this amount, he asked for global solidarity in containing the coronavirus just as the world came together to combat smallpox 40 years ago.