Medical personnel work in the ICU of Istituto Clinico Casalpalocco, in Rome, Italy, March 25, 2020.Photo:Xinhua

The COVID-19 outbreak in Europe was a mixed picture, with some countries such as Italy and Spain slowing down and others accelerating, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.

Margaret Harris, spokesperson for WHO, said at a press conference here Tuesday that globally, 90 percent of cases came from Europe and the United States, and "the peak had not yet been reached".

Explaining the vaccine development process, which required human safety trials, the WHO spokesperson underlined that no one could give a specific date now and that a vaccine was probably not realistic for at least 12 months.

Asked whether Russia would see the explosion of cases like the United States, Harris stressed that no country was alike and that a lot was in the hands of the governments and the population.

In China, she noted, the biggest threat at the moment were imported cases, which represented 90 percent of the infections identified the previous day.

As for the antibodies testing being conducted in some countries, Harris pointed out that this can confirm whether someone has been infected, but it does not guarantee immunity and a protection from the second infection.

"At this stage, none of the antibodies tests have been pre-qualified," she added.