Health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said: “In some member states, the situation is now even worse than during the peak in March. This is a real cause for concern.

“All member states need to roll out measures immediately and at the right time at the very first sign of potential new outbreaks.”

Europe has now had more than five million coronavirus cases, and several countries have begun reimposing local lockdown rules to head off a return to uncontrolled spread.

The death rate has not returned to the levels seen earlier this year, but cases of new infections are soaring once again in many areas.

But Kyriakides, whose office has sought to coordinate the response across the 27 member states, warned that some areas had clearly begun to lift restrictions too soon.

“What this means, to be very clear, is that the control measures taken have simply not been effective enough or not being enforced or followed as they should have been,” she said, AFP reported.

“We cannot lower our guard. This crisis is not behind us. Moreover, winter is the time of the year for more respiratory illnesses, including seasonal influenza.”

And she warned: “Today we’re here to call on everyone to act decisively… it might be our last chance to prevent a repeat of last spring.”

Kyriakides said that member state governments would have to fight misinformation about the virus and reach out to young people to head off protests and conspiracy theories.

And she warned they will have to act quickly to prevent a need for a return to generalized lockdowns, which she said would hurt the economy, education and the mental health of the public.

Britain last week re-imposed a 14-day quarantine period on people arriving from Spain.

Some other European countries which are currently exempt from the British quarantine measures have seen infections rise, Hancock said, without naming them.

“I am worried about a second wave of coronavirus in Europe. I think you can see a second wave starting to roll across Europe, and we’ve got to do everything we can to prevent it from reaching these shores and to tackle it,” Hancock said during an interview on Sky News.

“We have significant concerns about the second wave that is coming across Europe. And it’s not just Spain … but there are other countries too where the number of cases is rising. And we are absolutely determined to do everything that we can to keep this country safe,” he said, Reuters reported.

Hancock said the authorities were working on possible ways to shorten the quarantine period for people coming from Spain but no change was imminent.

“We are working on whether by testing people during that quarantine it is safe to then be able to release them earlier… But we are not imminently making an announcement on it,” he said in a BBC television interview.

“That work is not concluded. Until it is absolutely safe to make that sort of change then we won’t do so… We won’t be making changes on that in the next few days.”

Mainland China is battling the most aggressive return of COVID-19 in months, confirming 57 new locally transmitted cases on Sunday, the highest level since early March, driven by fresh infections in the far western region of Xinjiang.

In the northeast, Liaoning province reported a fifth straight day of new infections and Jilin province reported two new cases, its first since late May.

Hong Kong is expected to announce further restrictions on Monday including a ban on restaurant dining and mandated face masks outdoors, local media reported.

The measures, which are expected to take effect from Wednesday, would be the first time the city has completely banned dining in restaurants.

Australian authorities warned a six-week lockdown in parts of the southeastern Victoria state may last longer after the country registered its highest daily increase in infections.

Most of Australia is effectively virus-free but flare-ups in the two most populous southeastern states have authorities scrambling to prevent a wider national outbreak.

“The tragedy of COVID-19 is that we know, with the number of new infections that we have seen today, that there will be many further deaths in the days ahead,” Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told reporters.

In Japan, the government said it would urge business leaders to ramp up anti-virus measures such as staggered shifts, and aimed to see rates of telecommuting achieved during an earlier state of emergency.

“At one point, commuter numbers were down by 70 to 80%, but now it’s only about 30%,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said late on Sunday. “We really don’t want to backtrack on this, so we have to explore new ways of working and keep telecommuting high.”

Japan has avoided mass infections but a record surge in cases during the past week in Tokyo and other urban centres has experts worried the country faces a second wave.

Vietnam is evacuating 80,000 people, mostly local tourists, from the central city of Danang after three residents tested positive for the coronavirus at the weekend, the government said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian country is back on high alert after the government on Saturday confirmed its first community infections since April, and another three cases on Sunday, all in Danang.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to focus on COVID-19 and the economy in his annual State of the Nation Address on Monday.

Manila is weighing whether to re-impose stricter lockdown measures after easing them saw a dramatic surge in infections and deaths, with 62,326 cases reported since the first lockdown was relaxed June 1.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is expected to announce new measures to contain the outbreak as authorities struggle to contain more than a dozen new clusters that have appeared since curbs were lifted last month.

Indonesia is expected to report its 100,000th case on Monday, having surpassed China with the highest number of cases and deaths in East Asia.

North Korean state media reported on the weekend that the border town of Kaesong was in lockdown after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned this month with symptoms of COVID-19.

If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities.

South Korea has reported more than 14,000 cases and 298 deaths from the pandemic. Saturday’s 113 infections were the highest on a single day since March 31.

Papua New Guinea halted entry for travelers from Monday, except those arriving by air, as it tightens curbs against infections that have more than doubled over the past week.

Traditional border crossing were suspended from July 23, police Chief David Manning said in a statement distributed on Monday. PNG has fluid borders with Indonesia, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Solomon Islands with people regularly crossing on foot or in small boats.

While much of Asia is reimposing lockdowns and other curbs on movement, India continues to ease restrictions despite a relentless rise in infections. India has a total of 1.4 million cases, behind only the United States and Brazil.

More than 16.13 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 644,836​have died, according to a Reuters tally.