“This is not the time to be lax.”

That’s the advice of World Health Organisation Regional Director Dr Takeshi Kasai, who has urged governments that hasty easing of coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of Covid-19 globally.

As reopenings roll out across the United States, as well as in Germany, Italy and Spain, Dr Kasai said “we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future,” and lift restrictions slowly to protect vulnerable people.

“Our lives and approach to stopping transmission must continue to adapt and evolve along with the (pandemic).” Dr Kasai told an online press conference.

“At least until a vaccine, or a very effective treatment, is found, this process will need to become our new normal,” he said.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to doing this. But the lifting of lockdowns needs to be done gradually. I’m sure nobody wants to see another spike (in infections) by lifting restrictions too soon,” said Dr Kasai.

Yesterday the Department of Health announced that a further  77 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in Ireland have died over the past number of days. 401 new cases were reported by Irish labs.

There is now a total of 15,652 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Ireland.