All countries who have introduced lockdown measures must use this time to focus on suppressing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), said the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), unveiling a six-point plan to fight the virus.

All countries who have introduced lockdown measures must use this time to focus on suppressing and controlling the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), said the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), unveiling a six-point plan to fight the virus.

All countries who have introduced lockdown measures must use this time to focus on suppressing and controlling the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), said the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), unveiling a six-point plan to fight the virus.

“Already we have lost more than 16,000 lives. We know we will lose more – how many more will be determined by the decisions we make and the actions we take now,” added Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 in Zurich yesterday (March 25).

To slow the spread of COVID-19, many countries have introduced unprecedented measures, at significant social and economic cost – closing schools and businesses, cancelling sporting events and asking people to stay home and stay safe, he noted.

“We understand that these countries are now trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measures. The answer depends on what countries do while these population-wide measures are in place. Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems,” he added.

“But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics.”

The point of these actions is to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives.

“There are six key actions that we recommend,” said Ghebreyesus.

“First, expand, train and deploy your health care and public health workforce;

“Second, implement a system to find every suspected case at community level;

“Third, ramp up the production, capacity and availability of testing;

“Fourth, identify, adapt and equip facilities you will use to treat and isolate patients;

“Fifth, develop a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts;

“And sixth, refocus the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19,” he explained. – TradeArabia News Service