COVID-19: WHO urges continuation of public health measures

The World Health Organization has urged nations to continue public health measures to curtail spread of the coronavirus.

The WHO Director General gave the advice Monday as countries begin to reopen their societies and economies.

“We urge countries to be careful and creative in finding solutions that people stay safe while getting on with their lives. We continue to urge all countries to double down on the fundamental public health measures that we know work. Finding and testing suspected cases works, isolating and caring for the sick works, tracing and quarantining contacts works and protecting health workers works’‘, Dr. Ghebreyesus said.

Globally, covid-19 cases have surpassed 9 million with almost 5 million recoveries and over 470,000 deaths.

South Africa has registered over 100,000 cases, the highest on the continent with almost 2,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, the WHO Director-General has warned that the greatest threat from the COVID-19 pandemic is not the coronavirus itself but a “lack of global solidarity” in confronting it.

“The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself, it’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership. We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world. Together, we must work to ensure that the lessons of this pandemic are learned and the world never again finds itself unprepared”, he said.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited the “acceleration” of the virus’ spread by noting it only took eight days for the most recent million cases to be recorded, compared to three months for the first million.

AP