The World Health Organization issued a stark warning to European nations Thursday, saying that relaxing COVID measures could spark a “perfect storm” allowing cases to spiral - as seen in India.

New infections and deaths are soaring in India, which experts have said can in part be blamed on mass gatherings in the nation of 1.3 billion people.

The head of WHO Europe said countries should not make the mistake of relaxing restrictions too soon to avoid similar new waves of infection.

“When personal protective measures are being relaxed, when there are mass gatherings, when there are more contagious variants and the vaccination coverage is still low this can create a perfect storm in any country”, - said Hans Kluge.

It is very important to realise that the situation in India can happen anywhere”.