Amid the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, the World Health Organization warns that it’s not yet time to relax pandemic efforts globally.

The WHO cited concerns that Brazil’s epidemic could spread to other countries.

“We think we’re through this. We’re not,” Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, told an online briefing.

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“Countries are going to lurch back into third and fourth surges if we’re not careful,” the official added.

Record COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Brazil this week. Health authorities said that its hospital system is on the brink of collapse due to the new variant first identified there.

COVID-19 case numbers globally reversed a six-week downwards trend last week despite the delivery of millions of doses of vaccines in recent weeks, WHO data showed.

“Now is not the time for Brazil or anywhere else for that matter to be relaxing. The arrival of vaccines is a moment of great hope but it is also potentially a moment where we lose concentration,” Ryan added.

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A coronavirus variant found in Brazil is feared to have the tendency to reinfect those who have already survived COVID-19.

Researchers said that the Brazil variant called P.1, carries a mutation that is already known to make a variant prevalent in South Africa harder to treat with antibodies and harder to prevent with available vaccines.

Earlier data showed that those who survived COVID-19 may not be immune to P.1.

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