Stay at home order won’t extinguish COVID-19 – WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO), says asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is just a measure to buy time and reduce the pressure on health systems, but on their own, these measures will not extinguish the epidemics.

According to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, the answer to stopping the pandemic depends on what countries do while these population-wide measures are in place.

“We understand that countries are trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measures.

“The point of these actions is to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives. We call on all countries that have introduced so-called “lockdown” measures to use this time to attack the virus.”

The world health body recommended 6 key actions needed to wipe out the pandemic.

The first, it said is the need to expand, train, and deploy your health care and public health workforce, and also implement a system to find every suspected case at the community level.

Others include ramping up production capacity and availability of testing; Identify, adapt, and equip facilities you will use to treat patients; develop a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts, and refocus the whole the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19.

“These measures are the best way to suppress and stop transmission so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus doesn’t resurge. The last thing any country needs is to reopen schools and businesses only to be forced to close them again because of a resurgence”