COVID-19: Countries With Less Confirmed Cases Should Not Relax, WHO Warns

COVID-19: Countries With Less Confirmed Cases Should Not Relax, WHO Warns

POLITICS DIGEST – The World Health Organisation (WHO) has cautioned countries with less recorded cases of Coronavirus not to relax, the Director-General of the organisation Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.

According to the WHO boss, complacency was one of the greatest dangers that should not be allowed at this critical time.

Dr. Ghebreyesus, who was speaking during his daily news briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, said that the virus remains extremely dangerous and that most of the world’s populations remain susceptible.

This, according to him, means that the epidemic can easily reignite. “There is no question that stay-at-home orders and other physical distancing measures have successfully suppressed transmission in many countries.

“But this virus remains extremely dangerous, and the evidence is that most of the world’s populations remain susceptible, that means the epidemic can easily reignite. “One of the greatest dangers we face now is complacency,’’ he said.

He acknowledged the suffering and frustration of people confined to their homes for weeks by stay-at-home orders imposed by their governments to check the spread of the virus.

He added that the WHO understood the hardships occasioned by such orders and the people’s desires to get on with their lives.

“But the world will not and cannot go back to the way things were. There must be a new norm: a world that is healthier safer and better prepared.

“The same public health measures we have been advocating since the beginning of the pandemic must remain the backbone of the response in all countries: “Find every case; isolate every case; test every case; care for every case; trace and quarantine every contact, and educate, engage and empower your people. “The fight cannot be effective without empowering our people and without the full participation of all,’’ he said.