Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote an op-ed in the New England Journal of Medicine calling the coronavirus a "once-in-a-century pandemic" and urged leaders to both "solve the immediate problem and keep it from happening again."

We need to save lives now while also improving the way we respond to outbreaks in general," Gates wrote.

Gates went on to write that larger, more developed countries should help their own citizens in responding to pandemics, but also assist 'low- and middle-income countries" in preparing for them.

"By helping African and South Asian countries get ready now, we can save lives and slow the global circulation of the virus," Gates wrote.