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Updated: May 11, 2020 7:12:23 am
Nabarro said that the way India had handled the epidemic thus far gave him enormous confidence that he could also successfully manage the next stage.
While applauding India’s “remarkable success” in containing the spread of the new coronavirus disease in the first phase of the outbreak, David Nabarro, special envoy of the World Health Organization (WHO) at Covid-19, said the key Success in the next phase would be preparing local governments to suppress and manage outbreaks at the community level.
Nabarro, a British physician and public health professional who was in the running for first place at WHO, is one of six special envoys appointed by the WHO Director-General in February to provide strategic advice to countries and to engage in high-level political promotion. at Covid-19.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Nabarro, 70, said that India had done remarkably well so far to slow the spread of the virus and keep it contained in some urban pockets. But how the lock is liftedIt is “inevitable” that outbreaks will occur in many other areas, he said, and everyone in the country needed to be educated about what was happening and be prepared to face the crisis.
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“India can live with Covid and you can really keep the virus at bay just by doing the following. One is that every person in the country must be aware of the virus so they know the importance of interrupting transmission as soon as an outbreak occurs.
“And second, every parchad panchayat and zilla in India should develop capacity to suppress outbreaks quickly. That, of course, would have been accompanied by providing support to the people affected by this repression because the poor people suffer a lot for it. But having this ability to suppress the outbreak while protecting the poor is the second requirement India must have, “said Nabarro.
“If you have everyone on the alert for interrupting transmission and have a widespread ability to suppress outbreaks, which will mean restricting movement as in the current blockade, but on a very local level, then the rest of society can get on with their lives. Normally, he can be happy, he can have his jobs. It will not be comfortable, of course, and the first few weeks and months after the (current) blockade ends will be difficult, but it is doable, “he said.
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Nabarro said it was this type of approach that helped China maintain tight control over the resurgence of the epidemic.
“What I hear from China from my Chinese colleagues is that they have actually implemented a national network of community health personnel who closely monitor cases. The moment they find a case, they immediately isolate the patient. They have really managed to do this well, across the country. This is what they tell me.
“They (China) have also made sure that the entire population knows how serious this problem is. And then they also seem to be very, very cautious. Because they know that new people will arrive in the country and are aware of the fact that there will be multiple resurgences. And they are preparing to contain them as quickly as possible. I think India would also have to do the same, “he said.
Nabarro said that the way India had handled the epidemic thus far gave him enormous confidence that he could also successfully manage the next stage.
“One of the things that I look at from your country is the doubling time of the number of cases. I found out a few days ago that the doubling time in your country seems to be about 11 days. That’s really good, because what we know from other places is that if this virus does what it wants to do, and there is no effort to limit transmission, then the doubling time is about every two and a half days. So if you have a doubling time of 11 days, what that means is that the streaming opportunities have been reduced substantially, ”he said.
“A doubling time of 11 days is quite remarkable. It means that there has been a real effort, and a successful effort, to stop the spread of this virus. I have said this before that I see signs of incredible achievement in a country that is normally very populated in urban areas, and there is generally a lot of movement of people, ”he said.
Nabarro said that while the blocks could be “brutal” and overall “terrible,” it would not have been a wise decision to let the virus spread without intervention.
“Let me tell you that if this virus were allowed to move around the world without any effort to contain it, we believe that a huge number of people would get sick and die. We still don’t fully understand many things about this virus. It appears to be capable of causing more than just respiratory illnesses, and could have other impacts as well. All of us who have been working with this virus, and also with other coronaviruses, have learned to be extremely cautious with these viruses, “he said.
He also said he did not see a vaccine that would help people before the next two years, and that countries and people had better learn to live with the virus at least during that time.
“I am encouraging everyone to think in terms of living with this virus for at least two years. And that applies to all 7.8 billion people on our planet. It will be a universal learning process, ”he said.
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