The chief of the World Health Organization warned Monday that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over, even as some countries gingerly started to ease restrictions, VOA reported.

“Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”

He compared the coronavirus outbreak, which worldwide has sickened nearly 2.5 million people and killed more than 167,000, to the 1918 Spanish flu that killed up to 100 million. But he said that such a dire outcome does not have to occur.

“Now we have technology, we can prevent that disaster, we can prevent that kind of crisis,” Tedros said.

Several countries eased their coronavirus restrictions on Monday.

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