The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged nations to take urgent steps in the fight against coronavirus.
The global pandemic has affected 200 countries and caused over 20,000 deaths globally.
Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a briefing lauded the lockdown that has been affected in many countries.
He stated that the period should be used to do more to suppress the spread of the disease.
“We understand that countries are trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measures”, Ghebreyesus said.
“Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems, but on their own, these measures will not extinguish the epidemics.”
He added that 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. You have created a second window of opportunity. The question is: how will you use it?”
The WHO DG advised countries to immediately expand, train, and deploy healthcare and public health workforce;
Implement a system to find every suspected case at the community level;
Ramp 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;
Refocus the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19.
Ghebreyesus stressed that these measures are the best way to suppress and stop transmission so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus doesn’t resurge.
As of Thursday, there were 51 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Nigeria.
