“When we speak about a second wave classically what we often mean is there will be a first wave of the disease by itself, and then it recurs months later. And that may be a reality for many countries in a number of months' time,” Ryan said and added: “We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up. 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.”

He also warned that a second peak or wave could come during the normal influenza season, which will greatly complicate things for disease control.

Many countries around the world, including European countries and US states, have taken steps recently to ease lockdown measures that contained the spread of the pandemic but caused severe harm to their economies.

ILKHA