The head of the World Health Organization(WHO) urged countries around the world to invest in bolstering their public health systems, warning that the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last outbreak.

At a press briefing in Geneva on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said history has taught the world that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life.

Stressing that public health is the foundation for social, economic and political stability, the WHO chief said investments should be made towards disease prevention, detection and response, so that the world will be better prepared next time.

He added that countries, including South Korea, were able to appropriately respond to COVID-19 after learning lessons from previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, measles, polio, Ebola, flu and other diseases.

Over 27-point-three million people have been infected by COVID-19 globally since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019, with more than 892-thousand succumbing to the virus.