"We are right in the middle of the first wave, globally," Mike Ryan said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a warning towards countries seeing a decline in coronavirus infections could still witness an "immediate second peak" if they lift the measures too soon to halt the outbreak.
"We are right in the middle of the first wave, globally," Mike Ryan - executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme - was quoted as saying by CNN during a media briefing on Monday.
"We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up," he added.
During the briefing, he also told reporters that epidemics often come in waves, this means that this outbreaks could come back later this year in numerous places where the first wave has subsided.
Ryan also said that there was a chance that infection rates could rise once again more rapidly if measures were lifted too soon to halt the first wave.
"We need to be also cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time," he said.
"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 added.
Ryan also warned that a second wave could return during the normal influenza season, "which will greatly complicate things for disease control."
He said mentioned nations in Europe and North America should "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 downwards trajectory and we don't have an immediate second peak."
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 added.
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