Lockdown Isn’t Enough To Fight Coronavirus: WHO Tells India

After commending India’s efforts in controlling the Coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization makes a fresh caution to the country’s government.

In a statement, WHO Executive Director Mike Ryan said lockdown is just not enough to control the outbreak, which also requires other important measures in parallel.

WHO warned the government of possible resurgence even after lockdown, if such measures aren’t implemented.

“Without implementing the necessary measures, without putting in place those protections, it’s going to be very difficult for the country to exit [from the lockdown]. And when they do, they have a resurgence and I think that’s the challenge now,” Ryan said in a statement.

Asked about his comments on wave of infections even after lockdown, he said, “India has incredible capacities, but it must do things. You must have a system to find cases, you must test, you must expand your capacity to treat and isolate, you must be able to quarantine your contacts. And if those things are put in place — and I know they are being put in place — but if we can accelerate that…”

WHO Technical Lead on COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove urged India to be cautious about cycle of lockdowns and resurgence.

“What we don’t want is to get into a situation where you have a lockdown and then you lift it and then you have a resurgence, then you have a lockdown, and you have this endless cycle,“ said Maria.

In this regard, the global organization asked the Indian Government to think of different ways other than uniform lockdown across the country.

“In China, in different parts of the country, they applied different intensities and levels of these measures. In Singapore, they took different measures where they didn’t have to close their schools,” she added, citing the examples of other nations.

Stay tuned to Indianera.com for more updates about #Coronavirus and other news updates about India.

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