Bans on international travel cannot remain in place indefinitely, and countries should do more to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus within their borders, the World Health Organization said.
A wave of infections has led countries to reimpose some travel restrictions in recent days.
Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, could the world beat the COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday in a virtual press conference.
“Where these measures are followed, cases go down. Where they are not, cases go up,” he said, praising Canada, China, Germany and South Korea for controlling the outbreaks.
The head of the WHO Emergency Program, Mike Ryan, said the travel bans were not sustainable.
“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 lowers the numbers. Release that pressure and the cases will rise again.”
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Tedros also said that the UN health agency’s emergency committee would meet to review the statement that the outbreak constituted a “public health emergency of international concern.”
A so-called PHEIC statement, which marks the highest level of alarm under international health standards, must be reevaluated every six months.
Before COVID-19, the WHO had only made such statements five times since its International Health Regulations changed in 2007, for swine flu, polio, Zika, and twice for Ebola outbreaks in Africa.
Of these, the current pandemic “is easily the most severe,” said Tedros.
The pandemic will undoubtedly be considered by the emergency committee to remain a global public health emergency, but it could alter some of its recommendations on how WHO and the world should respond.
The situation has changed dramatically since the statement was made.
“When he declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30 … there were fewer than 100 cases outside of China and there were no deaths,” said Tedros.
But since then, case numbers have increased more than 16 million, with nearly 650,000 deaths worldwide.
“COVID-19 has changed our world. It has brought people, communities and nations together, and has separated them,” said Tedros.
The WHO has faced criticism from certain sectors for its response, and some accused it of acting too slowly, something that the organization itself strongly denies.
“In the past six months, WHO has worked tirelessly to help countries prepare for and respond to this virus,” said Tedros.
“I am immensely proud of our organization, the WHO, and its incredible people and efforts.”
Tedros himself has for months faced relentless attacks by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who accused the WHO of being a “puppet of China.”
Earlier this month, Trump followed through on his threat to begin withdrawing the United States, traditionally WHO’s largest donor, from the organization.
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