Countries must ease blockades slowly, be prepared for virus to roll back: WHO

GENEVA / LONDON (Reuters) – Countries should lift the blockades gradually, while remaining “vigilant” about COVID-19 and ready to re-establish restrictions if the virus recedes, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Vulnerable people in institutions, including those in long-term care facilities, prisons and migrant dormitories, must be protected, said its chief emergency expert, Dr. Mike Ryan.

Even if the virus is under control, communities must know how to follow hygiene and physical distancing measures, and testing of suspected cases must continue, he said.

“It is really important that, as countries ease those measures, they are constantly on the lookout for a jump in infections and, in particular, are dealing with transmission in special settings,” Ryan said at a press conference.

The virus has spread to facilities for the elderly in Europe and North America, while in Singapore it has infected migrant workers in dormitories, he said, adding: “Because a spark in a situation like that turns into a wildfire. quickly”.

The WHO recognizes the difficulty for governments to maintain blockades during the pandemic, “for social, psychological and economic reasons,” Ryan said.

“So we are very anxious to be able to move into a situation where the disease can be kept under control with less severe measures,” he said.

“But at the same time we want to avoid a situation where we launch measures too easily and then we recover in intense transmission and we have to do it again,” he said.

Even as some western countries begin easing the blockades, there are worrying trends of spread in countries from Haiti to Somalia to Yemen, Ryan said. He also cited Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sierre Leone, the Central African Republic and a “serious group” in Kano in northern Nigeria.

Regarding the new coronavirus that emerged late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, he reiterated that scientists who examine its genetic sequences have assured the WHO that “this virus is of natural origin.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave a strong defense of his “timely” and WHO actions by declaring that the new coronavirus is an international emergency in late January.

The January 30 statement was made “in time for the rest of the world to respond” because at that stage outside of China there were only 82 cases of infection and no deaths, he said.

Tedros said the WHO, which seeks to lead the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, had used the days before declaring the global emergency as the time to visit China to learn more about the new virus.

During that visit, they also won an “innovative agreement” with China to send researchers, Tedros said.

Tedros, who was asked about relations with the United States, his largest donor who suspended funds after criticizing WHO’s handling of the pandemic, said: “We are actually in constant contact and working together.” He gave no details.