Dr. David Nabarro, a special envoy to the World Health Organization's coronavirus team, said that the outbreak will linger in the coming months.

His warning is at odds with the hopes of President Donald Trump and other officials, who want to end social distancing guidelines and restart economic activity as soon as possible.

"We think it's going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come, until we can all have a vaccine," Nabarro told "Meet the Press" on NBC Sunday.

Nabarro also rejected claims that the WHO has a pro-China bias, saying the organization's fact-finding mission in February had no restrictions.

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The novel coronavirus pandemic will not be over any time soon, according to Dr. David Nabarro, a special envoy to the World Health Organization. In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," he warned of long-term social and economic impacts, even as President Donald Trump seeks to ramp up economic activity in the United States next month.

"We're not so sure that it will come in waves in the way that influenza does," Nabarro said Sunday. "We think it's going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come, until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us, and that there will be small outbreaks that will emerge sporadically."

As countries begin to lift lockdown restrictions for the virus, they're experiencing new outbreaks they are trying to control. But those small outbreaks will "break through our defenses," Nabarro said.

To shield against them, Nabarro said, governments must institute policy measures and health infrastructure to "pick up cases as soon as they appear, isolate them, and stop outbreaks from developing."

"We're actually encouraging countries to put that in place now," he said. "And that will facilitate releasing lockdowns and prevent further massive outbreaks."

In late March, Trump said he hoped to see "packed churches" on Easter Sunday, though his administration has pushed back the end-date for social distancing.

"I think we are all expecting or planning for May 1," a senior administration official told NBC News on Monday.

US president Donald Trump looks on as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health Anthony Fauci (middle) speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 outbreak at the White House on February 26, 2020. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty

But the virus is still not contained, and it is accelerating in other parts of the world. Nabarro implored governments to coalesce against the pandemic.

"I'd love to see much greater cooperation between leaders," he said. "I'd like to see them uniting and showing the world that they believe that this global threat has to be dealt with through united action between all countries and their people."

Trump recently threatened to slash US funding to the WHO, calling it "China-centric," but Nabarro rejected the claim that the organization has a pro-China bias.

"We need a strong WHO, a trusted WHO. And we hope all leaders will continue to work with us in that way," he said.

He said the Chinese government invited a team of fact-finders to the country in mid-February. "There were no restrictions on what that team investigated," Nabarro said. "It included American experts as well as experts from others in the world."

"We have been given access to the information we requested. And so therefore, I don't like, at any time, to say we don't believe," he added. "We believe what we've got. We work with what we've got. That's how we operate in the World Health Organization."