The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Monday that the organization supports easing the measures imposed due to Corona, describing the removal of restrictions completely without control as a “disaster.”
This came during a press conference via “video conference” technology, held at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, 8 months after the virus began spreading worldwide.
“We want children to return to school, workers and employees to their places of work, but we want a safe return, because removing restrictions completely is a disaster,” Ghebreyesus said.
He added, “The World Health Organization supports the efforts of countries to gradually return to social and economic life and remove the imposed restrictions, provided that countries take the necessary precautions.”
Ghebreyesus said that a study published by the organization today, about 105 countries, revealed that 90 percent of countries suffer from disruptions in health services and that low and middle-income countries are the most affected.
Ghebreyesus pointed out that the study also revealed a 70 percent deficiency in health services related to routine vaccination, cancer diagnosis and treatment, non-communicable diseases diagnosis and treatment, and others.
And he added: “The World Health Organization will continue to work with these countries to maintain basic health services.”
And he stressed that countries should take at least four basic steps, before returning to normal life, which are: limiting collective events, protecting the most threatening groups from the virus (elderly and children), and everyone’s contribution to enhancing public safety by wearing a mask, social distancing and washing hands, And take measures to identify, isolate and treat the injured.
Ghebreyesus expressed his thanks to the European Union Commission, which will contribute an amount of 400 million euros to the study aimed at finding a vaccine, known as “Kovacs”.
Globally, Corona infected, up to Monday evening, more than 25 million and 539 thousand people, of whom more than 852 thousand died, and more than 17 million and 824 thousand recovered, according to the “worldometer” website, which specializes in counting virus victims.
Source: Turkish Anadolu Agency
