The World Health Organization will convene an emergency meeting of experts later this week for a review of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the Emergency Committee meeting planned for Thursday during a virtual press briefing at the WHO headquarters in Switzerland. 

The WHO chief said Thursday will mark six months since the global health body declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern, and that the pandemic continues to accelerate. 

The fourth emergency meeting on COVID-19 will assess the pandemic and the committee will convey its recommendations to the WHO chief, who called the current global health emergency easily the "most severe". 
  
The director-general called the emergency meeting as more than 16 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide with nearly 650-thousand total deaths since the outbreak began late last year.