GENEVA • Countries emerging from restrictions to halt the coronavirus must proceed “extremely carefully” or risk a rapid rise in new cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.

Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said such countries needed to ensure they had adequate measures to control the spread of Covid-19.

“The risk of returning to lockdown remains very real if countries do not manage the transition extremely carefully and in a phased approach,” he said at a virtual briefing in Geneva.

WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove backed his concerns about the disease which has infected 3.71 million globally.

Singapore reported 741 new cases yesterday, taking its tally to 20,939, a majority of which are migrant workers in dormitories.

It was the 14th day in a row where the new daily infections fell below 1,000. Five Singaporeans and permanent residents are among the new patients.

While circuit breaker measures are still in force here, the WHO has warned against lifting global curbs too soon.

“If lockdown measures are lifted too quickly, the virus can take off,” said Dr Van Kerkhove.

Government-ordered lockdowns have become increasingly unpopular as countries suffer rising unemployment and economic activity grinds to a halt.

The euro zone economy will contract by a record 7.7 per cent this year, while private employers in the United States laid off 20.2 million workers last month.

Some countries, such as Germany, Spain and Italy, have started to relax restrictions, while US President Donald Trump has said his focus is on opening up the country again.

WHO official Mike Ryan said it was up to governments to decide how and when to restart their economies, adding that the United Nations body would offer risk management advice if needed.

Dr Tedros, who has come under fire mainly from the Trump administration for his handling of the outbreak, said that he would conduct an assessment of the WHO’s actions when the pandemic recedes.

“While the fire is raging I think our focus should not be divided,” he said.

Separately, the WHO said on Wednesday that recovered coronavirus patients who later test positive again for the disease are expelling dead lung cells rather than getting a new infection.

“From what we currently know – and this is based on very recent data – it seems these patients are expelling leftover materials from their lungs, as part of the recovery phase,” a WHO spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Singapore continued its own battle against the coronavirus.

Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin said that the massive outbreak of coronavirus cases among migrant workers in dormitories cannot be attributed to bad living conditions alone – even if there are abysmal examples.

Instead, it was a healthcare crisis, which should not be conflated with the living conditions of workers, he said.

In a separate panel discussion yesterday, Associate Professor Alex Cook, vice-dean of research at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said that if circuit breaker measures were lifted completely next month, then efforts to keep infections down so far would serve merely to delay peak case numbers by a few months.

On the other hand, if social distancing continues, albeit with more relaxed measures, the number of infections will go up at a much gentler pace, he added.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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