UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is criticizing the total lack of international coordination in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and warning that the go-it-alone policy of many countries will not defeat the coronavirus.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that what needs to be done is to make countries understand that by acting in isolation “they are creating the situation that is getting out of control” — and that coordinated global coordination is key.

He said COVID-19 started in China, moved to Europe, then to North America and now to South America, Africa and India, and some people are now talking about second waves coming at any moment — “and there is total lack of coordination among countries in the response to the COVID.”

Guterres said it’s important to use that fact “to make countries understand that bringing them together, putting together their capacities, not only in fighting the pandemic in a coordinated way but in working together to have the treatments, testing mechanisms, the vaccines … accessible to everybody, that this is the way we defeat the pandemic.”