COVID-19 is 10 times more deadly than swine flu: WHO

The body called for control measures against the virus to be lifted slowly. Reuters/File

The novel coronavirus is 10 times more deadly than swine flu, also called H1N1, which caused a global pandemic in 2009, the World Health Organization said Monday, calling for control measures to be lifted "slowly".

"We know that COVID-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly, 10 times more deadly than the 2009 flu pandemic," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from Geneva.