The World Health Organization(WHO) has pointed to South Korea as a model case for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a video briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said South Korea was suffering from accelerating community infections just one month ago.

Rather than surrender, he said, the country developed innovative testing strategies, expanded its lab capacity and distributed masks.

The WHO chief said South Korea also carefully tracked and tested people who had come into contact with confirmed cases and quarantined suspicious cases in designated places. As a result, he said, new cases of COVID-19 have been decreasing.

He said other countries fighting the virus are applying the lessons learned in South Korea and other areas.