The World Health Organization is warning all countries of a second peak – not necessarily a second wave – of coronavirus cases.
Executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme Dr. Mike Ryan said, right now, we are “right in the middle of the first wave, globally.”
“We’re still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up,” he said in the media press briefing,
“We need to be also cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now that it’s going to keep going down, and the way to get a number of months to get ready for a second wave – we may get a second peak in this way,” Ryan added..
Ryan also warned that a second peak or wave could come during the normal influenza season, “which will greatly complicate things for disease control.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO infectious disease epidemiologist, said “all countries need to remain on high alert here. All countries need to be ready to rapidly detect cases, even countries that have had success in suppression. … Even countries that have seen a decline in cases must remain ready.”
“A hallmark of coronaviruses is its ability to amplify in certain settings, its ability to cause transmission – or super spreading events. And we are seeing in a number of situations in these closed settings. When the virus has an opportunity, it can transmit readily,” she said.
