In the nine and a half months since a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases were reported in China, 43-year-old American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove has been thrust to the forefront of the World Health Organisation's battle against Covid-19.

“I am immensely proud to be part of this team,” she told AFP in an exclusive interview, pointing to the huge amounts of knowledge amassed about the disease in a few short months.

She acknowledged though that “this is far from over”.

Read Van Kerkhove's full interview here.