The extraordinary economic and political upheaval spurred by the virus presents a real danger to the relative peace the world has seen over the last few decades, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, according to AFP.

The “disease [...] represents a threat to everybody in the world and [...] an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past.

"The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since World War II,” he said.