Early Lifting of COVID-19 Lockdown Will Lead to New Wave of Cases - Researchers

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2020) The premature lifting of lockdown measures designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 will lead to a second wave of the disease and increased infection rates, according to a new report published by researchers in Singapore on Tuesday.

"The early relaxation of social distancing and lockdown in Italy and United States might increase infection rates and thus delay the ending as predicted now," a report published by the Data-Driven Innovation Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design read.

The laboratory uses infection rates to predict the end of the global pandemic and updates in real-time. The researchers predict that the global outbreak will end on December 1, although countries that were seen as the earlier epicenters of the outbreak, such as Italy and Spain, will gain complete control over the disease by the summer.

The outbreak in the United States, the current world leader for case numbers and deaths, is predicted to conclude on September 9. In Russia, the predicted end date is August 7, according to the researchers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) coronavirus dashboard, more than 2.95 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported since the start of the outbreak, resulting in the deaths of more than 202,500 people. On Monday, the WHO registered 85,530 new cases of the disease worldwide over the preceding 24 hours, up from 84,900 on Sunday.