WHO chief warns London is at an ‘extremely serious’ risk of a second wave

A World Health Organization (WHO) chief has warned on Monday that London is at a “critical time,” as new cases of coronavirus are increasing in the capital

The WHO envoy for Europe Dr David Nabarro said that resurgence of coronavirus which can case a second wave is “extremely serious” as the capital is seeing new cases rising in two thirds of London boroughs.

Dr Nabarro warned that figures do show that in 22 London boroughs that there is a confirmed, rising surge of virus infections.

He told the Evening Standard, that million’s of Londoners must “not bend the rules” over social distancing and hygiene as the country is experiencing a heatwave.

Dr Nabarro said: “It really is a critical time now for us to be treating this virus with the upmost respect.

“I’m not somebody who wants us to continue with lockdown, I want us not to have to continue with working from home, we need to be able as a society to be able to go to work, and also frankly to socialise.

“So the whole approach I’m taking is one of saying ‘let’s come back to a normal working life but remember that it’s not normal as we knew it eight months ago, this is a new reality of living with the constant threat of this virus… it’s establishing a new way of behaviour that is compatible with holding the virus at bay’.”

Dr Nabarro, co-director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, said: “Extremely serious… it’s what I call resurgence because the virus has not gone away,” when asked if a second wave is a risk in London.

He added, “People want to bend the rules but the virus does not get bored… nobody should bend the rules… we stick to them so we get on top of this virus.”

The City of London and Hackney had 59 confirmed virus infections in the seven days to 30 July, which is a rate of 20.5 per 100,000 population, compared to 43 the week before, at 14.9 cases per 100,000.

Barking and Dagenham have seen their infections rise from 11 to 29 as a rate from 5.2 to 13.7, according to analysis by Press Association of Public Health England figures.

Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Barnet and Brent had between 30 and 11 cases in the seven days to 30 July.

Harrow, Lambeth, Westminster saw the number of new cases rise from eight to 17, Redbridge, Hounslow, Lewisham, Newham, Wandsworth, Greenwich, Enfield, Richmond, Hillingdon, Camden, Croydon, Waltham Forest and Bromley are all seeing confirmed virus cases slightly rising.