GENEVA, August 31. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned countries against lifting the restrictions introduced to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic too quickly. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during a briefing in Geneva that uncontrolled lifting of measures is a "recipe for disaster."

"If countries are serious about opening up, they must be serious about suppressing transmission and saving lives. This may seem like an impossible balance, but it’s not. It can be done and it has been done. But it can only be done if countries are in control of transmission," he said. "The more control countries have over the virus, the more they can open up. Opening up without having control is a recipe for disaster," he stressed.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 25,400,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 850,870 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 17,716,700 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.