GENEVA, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Monday a pandemic of COVID-19 as the novel coronavirus continues to spread worldwide.

"Now that the coronavirus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a daily briefing.

But it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled, he added.