Shutting down population movement will not extinguish the Coronavirus epidemics- World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned the lockdown of countries in curtailing the spread of COVID19.

In a statement by the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, it said that: “We understand that countries are trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measures. The answer depends on what countries do while these population-wide measures are in place. Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems, but on their own, these measures will not extinguish the epidemics”.

Dr. Ghebreyesus said that the point of these actions was to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives. He called on all countries that have introduced so-called “lockdown” measures to use this time to attack the virus.

He gave 6 key actions that would help in curtailing the spread of the Coronavirus. They include the following:

1. expand, train, and deploy your health care and public health workforce
2. implement a system to find every suspected case at the community level
3. ramp up production capacity and availability of testing
4. identify, adapt, and equip facilities you will use to treat patients
5. develop a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts
6. refocus the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19

Dr. Ghebreyesus said that applying these measures was the only way to suppress and stop transmission so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus doesn’t resurge.

“The last thing any country needs is to reopen schools and businesses only to be forced to close them again because of a resurgence”, he said.