German Health Minister Jens Spahn has called for a "global reset" in the fight against pandemics as Germany and the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the creation of a new global hub in Berlin for gathering data on pandemics, Reuters reported.

Speaking at a virtual news conference attended also by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of the WHO, Spahn said the world was still insufficiently prepared for pandemics. "We need to identify pandemic and epidemic risks as quickly as possible, wherever they occur in the world," Spahn said.

"There will be more viruses that will emerge with the potential of sparking pandemics," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the news conference.

The new hub in Berlin, bringing together governmental, academic and private sector institutions, aims to harness global data to predict, prevent and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide.