AS several countries ease into relaxing the strict measures taken to contain the dreaded novel coronavirus outbreak, top officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) are urging extreme caution, warning that the volatility of the virus could result in a second peak, long before a second wave, causing further devastation.

“We congratulate countries who have managed to contain and suppress the disease transmission; when we speak about a second wave classically what we often mean is that there will be a first wave and the disease by itself effectively goes to a very low level and then it curves a number of months later.

We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now it's gonna keep going down and then we are going to get a number of months to get ready for a second wave,” the WHO's emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan told a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday.

We got a second peak, not necessarily a second wave, and therefore I think right now countries in Europe, countries in North America, many other countries around the world and South East Asia have to continue to put in place the public health and social measures, the surveillance measures, the testing measures and a comprehensive strategy to ensure that we continue on a downward trajectory and that we don't have an immediate second peak,” he said.

In the meantime, WHO Head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said stringency in social and public health measures remain paramount if countries are to overtake the virus and remain in the lead.