Countries should be more careful and slow down on easing restriction measures, the head of emergency programme at the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Monday.
A World Health Organization official issued a stark warning on Monday that several countries had made a 'premature rush' back to normality.
As the United States and many parts of Europe ease social distancing restrictions, the WHO's head of emergencies program Dr Mike Ryan warned that a new wave of Covid-19 infections could be coming.
He added that for a lot of the world, the pandemic was just getting started:
"All of the countries of the Americas, we still have nearly 1 million cases a week. 1 million. A week. You know it's not, it isn't over. And the same in Europe. In European region with half a million cases a week. It's not like this thing has gone away."
His warning comes amid renewed concern over the highly contagious Delta variant, first detected in India.
Dominant form
The variant has now spread to about 100 countries, and WHO officials have warned it could soon become the dominant form of the virus around the world.
It has sparked a resurgence of cases across parts of Europe, Asia, and the U.S., in pockets where vaccination rates remain low.
It is also driving a spike in Japan, casting a shroud over the Tokyo Olympics later this month.
It comes as Germany is easing strict restrictions on travel from the UK, Portugal and some other countries that were imposed because of the rise of the more contagious Delta variant of coronavirus.
Germany’s national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said late on Monday that Britain, Portugal, Russia, India and Nepal will be removed from the highest risk category of “virus variant areas”, from Wednesday.
They will move into the second-highest category of “high-incidence areas”.
The UK had been in the top risk category since May 23rd, and was joined last Tuesday by Russia and Portugal, one of Germany’s partners in the European Union.
