WHO director says relaxing COVID-19 measures too soon can bring renewed surge

Countries, states and cities that relax restrictions too soon can be flooded with new COVID-19 cases, the World Health Organization's regional director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, warned on Tuesday in a virtual briefing from Washington.

In the United States, Washington state and New York are seeing very low numbers of new cases and deaths, but 27 other states are reporting exponential growth, she said. The Americas region reported 5.1 million cases and more than 247,000 deaths due to COVID-19 as of June 29.