The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief says “we need to put up a fight now” during a peak in the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic – rather than focusing on when a second wave might come. Dr. Michael Ryan said the world will be much better at fighting a second wave, if people can learn the lessons of fighting the first wave.

WHO officials emphasized mask-wearing, social distancing, and hygiene by individuals, along with contact-tracing and tracking of cases by health authorities as key strategies to fight the virus. They say governments and individuals should contour their policies and behaviour based on the outbreak’s status in their countries.

Ryan said the world was experiencing a “second peak in the first wave” – a situation in which the virus hasn’t been suppressed enough to quell transmission to end the first one.

In Britain on Saturday, some signs of normalcy returned as pubs and barbers reopened for the first time in months. The easing has been warmly welcomed by many – but there are concerns the British government is being overly hasty. The UK’s total of 44-thousand COVID-19 deaths is the highest in Europe and the third-highest in the world behind the US and Brazil.

Other countries continued to report record highs in new confirmed cases, including South Africa and India. In Australia and northeast Spain, authorities ordered lockdowns for specific counties or communities aimed at stomping out increases in cases.