The UN well being physique warned that such measures cannot be stored up indefinitely (File)
Protecting borders closed to halt the unfold of COVID-19 is unsustainable, the World Well being Group mentioned Monday, urging international locations to undertake complete methods based mostly on native data of the place the virus is spreading.
Border closures and journey restrictions stay an necessary a part of many international locations’ technique to fight the novel coronavirus.
On the identical time, rising circumstances in a spread of nations in Europe and elsewhere that had loosened measures after showing to get their outbreaks underneath management have spurred discussions of potential recent border closures.
However the UN well being physique warned that such measures cannot be stored up indefinitely, and are additionally solely helpful when mixed with a variety of different measures to detect and break chains of transmission.
“Persevering with to maintain worldwide borders sealed will not be essentially a sustainable technique for the world’s financial system, for the world’s poor, or for anyone else,” Michael Ryan, WHO emergencies director, instructed journalists in a digital briefing.
“It’s going to be virtually not possible for particular person international locations to maintain their borders shut for the foreseeable future,” he mentioned, stating that “economies must open up, individuals must work, commerce has to renew.”
He acknowledged that in relation to COVID-19, it’s not possible to have a “world one dimension suits all coverage” as a result of outbreaks are creating in another way in numerous international locations.
Whereas international locations with rampant group transmission might have to make use of the blunt instrument of lockdowns to achieve management of the scenario, others needs to be burrowing right down to get a transparent overview of the place and the way the virus is spreading at an area stage.
– Do not ‘launch stress’ –
They need to be ready to tighten or loosen measures accordingly, he mentioned, warning towards “releasing stress” on the virus, which has killed some 650,000 individuals and contaminated 16.three million worldwide.
“Launch stress on the virus and the numbers can creep again up.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, mentioned that as an alternative of anticipating drastic measures to maintain the virus in verify, individuals have to adapt their behaviours for the lengthy haul.
“What we’ll have to determine… is what our new regular appears like?” she instructed reporters.
“Our new regular consists of bodily distancing from others, (and) sporting masks the place applicable,” she mentioned.
“Our new regular consists of us figuring out the place this virus is each day, the place we stay, the place we work, the place we need to journey.”
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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