MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. The world may face a far more serious pandemic in a few years, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the Anadolu agency on Thursday.

The world needs to be ready "to address future pandemics," he said.

"We have seen the world unable to be united in addressing COVID-19. We might be facing a worse pandemic in a few years' time. So this is the moment for countries to understand that the world is in danger, that the international community is witnessing a dramatic inequality growing, with enormous potential for tensions, for unrest, for conflict," the secretary general said.

"We need to in respect of the different positions, in respect of the different visions, to find a way to come together and to address together the challenges that might destroy us as the international community and destroy the planet," he said.

Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus said the day before that the world has never been in a better position to end the pandemic. He stated that the end of the pandemic "is in sight."

According to the WHO weekly newsletter published on Wednesday, more than 3.1 million people in the world have contracted coronavirus infection over the past week, about 11,000 have died. The number of infections decreased by 28% compared to the previous seven days, and the number of deaths by 22%.