The Covid-19 pandemic is in a critical phase, the World Health Organization said Monday, warning cases were surging despite proven measures to rein in the spread. "We are in a critical point of the pandemic right now," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, told reporters. "The trajectory of this pandemic is growing. It is growing exponentially. This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, when we have proven control measures," she said. nl-rjm/jj