The World Health Organization chief said late Sunday that he was self-quarantining after someone he had been in contact with tested positive for Covid-19, but stressed he had no symptoms, an Agence France-Presse read.

"I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.

"I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home," he added.

The 55-year-old former Ethiopian minister of health and foreign affairs  has been at the forefront of the United Nations health agency's efforts to battle the pandemic, it said.

Covid-19 has claimed nearly 1.2 million lives and infected over 46 million people worldwide since emerging in China late last year, the report added.