GENEVA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The coronavirus is taking an increasingly heavy toll on many areas of Brazil and Central and South America, WHO emergency chief Mike Ryan said on Friday.

If the current wave continues, it will be bigger than the previous, catastrophic wave, he said. "This is a tragedy in itself," he told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge in Geneva and Michael Shields in Zurich; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Chris Reese)