Geneva, Jul 28 (IANS): Governments should react quickly and communicate transparently to ensure small numbers of COVID-19 cases and clusters don't "reignite sustained and efficient community transmission", said a senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, made the appeal on Monday when talking about the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases worldwide, reports Xinhua news agency.

Countries such as Japan and Australia that have had contained the virus are experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

Japan has reported 4,740 newly confirmed cases to WHO in the past seven days.

"When the measures to suppress the virus are lifted, the virus returns," Ryan noted.

Some of the resurgences have started from long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, others were happening in places like nightclubs, where people come together and spend a prolonged period of time, said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

Meanwhile, Ryan said that in order to efficiently control the resurgence, countries need to have "consistent, clear, sustained interventions," and to get the interventions down to the community level.

It is equally important that governments be "honest and trustful" and "communicate reality on the ground" to the public.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the overall number of global coronavirus cases stood at 16,407,310 as of Tuesday morning, while the deaths have increased to 652,459.

The US accounted for the world's highest number of infections and fatalities at 4,287,974 and 148,009, respectively.

Brazil came in the second place with 2,442,375 infections and 87,618 deaths.