Opening up without controlling COVID-19 would be a 'recipe for disaster': WHO
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"We want to see children returning to school and people returning to work places, but we want to see it done safely," Tedros told a news conference.
The World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called on countries to persevere with restrictions to tackle coronavirus.
Tedros said that opening up without control of the virus would be a "recipe for disaster". However, he also noted that many people are getting tired of restrictions and want to return to normality after eight months of the new coronavirus.
"We want to see children returning to school and people returning to work places, but we want to see it done safely," Tedros told a news conference.
"No country can just pretend the pandemic is over," he said. "The reality is this virus spreads easily. Opening up without control is a recipe for disaster."
As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to surge, the virus epicentre has shifted to India even as cases topped 6 million and 7 million in the United States and the Latin American region respectively.
As many as 25,377,704 people around the world have been diagnosed with Covid-19. While more than 17,700,781 have recovered, 850,149 have died so far. The US, the worst-hit country, has 6,173,229. cases. It is followed by Brazil, which has 3,862,311.
Coronavirus cases in the United States, the world’s worst-hit nation, topped 6 million on Sunday as many states in the US’s Midwest region started reporting new surges since the last month. This also comes as school and universities started reopening across the states.
(Inputs from agencies)