The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Saturday of a new health crisis.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after a week-long World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva: "The historic decisions made by the World Health Organization at the Geneva meeting reflect a shared desire among member states to protect their people and the world from the common risks of public health emergencies and future pandemics."

He added that "the decision to conclude a pandemic agreement within the next year shows the strong and urgent desire of countries for this because the next pandemic is a matter of time."

Members of the World Health Organization extended the deadline by up to one year until next year's meeting to reach an agreement on a historic global treaty aimed at addressing future pandemics on the last day of the week-long World Health Assembly in Geneva.

As the Geneva meeting concluded, the World Health Organization stated in a statement that the assembly "made concrete commitments to conclude negotiations on a global pandemic agreement within a year at the latest."

The assembly also agreed to introduce amendments to the International Health Regulations, which are a legally binding framework for responding to public health emergencies.

In this context, the Director-General of the World Health Organization reported that the changes to the International Health Regulations "will enhance countries' abilities to detect future pandemic outbreaks and respond by strengthening their national capacities and coordination between countries on disease surveillance, information sharing, and response."