Adopt Localised Measures To Fight COVID-19, WHO Urges Countries
The World Health Organisation has urged countries to adopt ‘localised’ strategies against COVID-19, instead of re-imposing national lockdowns due to the health, social and economic repercussions.
Head of WHO’s Emerging Diseases and Zoonosis Unit, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, said that as at March, when COVID-19 pandemic spiralled out of control across the globe, over 100 countries imposed full or partial lockdown, which affected millions of people.
She described the measures as a “blunt, sheer force instrument” that bought countries time to build the public health infrastructure needed to tackle the virus.
Kerkove said the economic, health and social costs of lockdown have been “massive”, especially when reflecting on a series of events since the WHO declared a global health emergency six months ago.
“Lockdowns are not something that WHO recommended, but they needed to be used in a number of countries because the outbreaks were growing so quickly,” Kerkhove said, adding “But we are hopeful that countries will not need to implement national lockdowns again.”
She advised countries not to rely on a vaccine as a silver bullet to bring the pandemic to an end.
“In the next six months, we will not have a vaccine. I know there is a lot of work that is being accelerated in terms of having a safe and effective vaccine, but we cannot wait until next year for one to come around,” she added.
Kerkhove urged countries to make use of the tools currently available to adopt a “tailored, specific, localised” approach to contain new clusters of infections, adding “The speed of the science on this has been extraordinary. We have tools right now that can prevent transmission and save lives.”
She also called for adherence to measures that include contacting tracing, widespread testing, equipping health facilities, physical distancing and wearing of face masks.
“It is not one measure alone, all of the existing measures need to be used together. And it works.
“The reason we keep saying that it works is that we have seen this happen, we have seen countries bring these outbreaks under control,” Kerkove said.
(Punch Health Wise)
