GENEVA (Reuters) – Bans on international travel cannot stay in place indefinitely, and countries will have to do more to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus within their borders, the World Health Organization said Monday.
A wave of infections has caused countries to re-impose some travel restrictions in recent days, and Britain is jeopardizing the reopening of Europe’s tourism industry by ordering quarantine for travelers returning from Spain.
Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, could the world defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. virtual.
“When these measures are followed, the cases decrease. Where they are not, cases are on the rise, ”he said, praising Canada, China, Germany and South Korea for controlling the outbreaks.
The head of the WHO emergency program, Mike Ryan, said it was impossible for countries to keep borders closed for the foreseeable future.
“… It will be almost impossible for individual countries to keep their borders closed for the foreseeable future. Economies have to open, people have to work, trade must resume,” he said.
“What is clear is that the pressure on the virus pushes the numbers down. Release that pressure and the cases will rise again.”
Ryan praised Japan and Australia for having “good success in containing the disease,” but said it was expected that the virus would resurface in areas with active transmission if restrictions were lifted and mobility increased.
“And that is what has essentially happened in many countries, is that in nightclubs, other situations, bedrooms, other settings where people are together they can act as amplification points of the disease and then it can spread to the community ” We need to be hyper-alert on that. ”
The measures should be consistent and held in place long enough to ensure their effectiveness and public acceptance, Ryan said, adding that governments investigating groups should be praised and not criticized.
“What we have to worry about is situations where problems are not arising, where problems are being overlooked, where everything looks good.”
Ryan said Spain’s current situation was not as bad as it had been at the peak of the pandemic there, and he hoped the groups would be under control, although it would take days or weeks to discern the future pattern of the disease.
“The more we understand the disease, the more we have a microscope on the virus, the more accurate we can be to surgically remove it from our communities,” he added.
Reports from Stephanie Nebehay, Emma Farge, Michael Shields; Written by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Peter Graff
.
