Virus not less potent, WHO says after Italian doctor claim

The World Health Organization stressed Monday that the new coronavirus has not suddenly become less pathogenic, following claims by a leading Italian doctor that COVID-19 had lost some of its potency.

"We need to be exceptionally careful not to create a sense that, all of a sudden, the virus, by its own volition, has now decided to be less pathogenic. It is not the case at all," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual press briefing.