Countries cannot simply lock down their societies to defeat coronavirus, the World Health Organization’s top emergency expert said, adding that public health measures are needed to avoid a resurgence of the virus later on.
Dr Mike Ryan said: “What we really need to focus on is finding those who are sick, those who have the virus, and isolate them, find their contacts and isolate them,” in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“The danger right now with the lockdowns … if we don’t put in place the strong public health measures now, when those movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is the disease will jump back up.”
Much of Europe and the United States have followed China and other Asian countries and introduced drastic restrictions to fight the new coronavirus, with most workers told to work from home and schools, bars, pubs and restaurants being closed.
Mr Ryan said that the examples of China, Singapore and South Korea, which coupled restrictions with rigorous measures to test every possible suspect, provided a model for Europe, which the WHO has said has replaced Asia as the epicentre of the pandemic.
“Once we’ve suppressed the transmission, we have to go after the virus. We have to take the fight to the virus,” Mr Ryan said.