The head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme has warned countries about lifting Covid-19 restrictions too quickly.

Dr Mike Ryan said not enough people have been vaccinated for any country to lift restrictions too early.

Speaking during a Q&A on Facebook with epidemiologist Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Dr Ryan said that overall he thinks some countries have made “a very premature rush back to full normality”.

“I think were are going to pay a price for that, because we are not there at vaccination, the variants are really there and we have not protected enough people,” he added.

Dr Ryan said with cases in the European region running at 500,000 a week and one million a week in all the counties of the Americas, the pandemic is not over.

He said that for a lot of the world “unfortunately, this thing is only getting started”.

He urged patience and said there is the potential to end up in “huge trouble” with the Delta variant, which is much more transmissible.

“We just need to be a little more patient. Remember last summer when everything got good and then, everyone kind of relaxed and then we kind of arrived in September and October and ended up in huge trouble. I think that’s where we are going again with a much more transmissible variant this time around. And that is the issue,” he said.

Yesterday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a lifting of restrictions for England even while cases are rising, driven by the Delta variant.

He confirmed he intended to ease measures on 19 July, which will see the ending of laws on mask wearing and social distancing.