Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: The World Health Organization (WHO) chief has underscored the need for easing lockdowns against coronavirus under a “phased process” at a virtual meeting of the leading G20 global economies.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, reiterated the UN’s appreciation for committing to further strengthen the agency’s mandate in coordinating the international fight, noting that “all of your countries have been affected, and you are all at different stages of the response.”
With some countries such as Austria, Germany and Italy, beginning to announce an easing of restrictions in line with encouraging data such as falling caseloads and hospital deaths, Tedros said it was key to see lifting so-called lockdown restrictions as “not the end of the epidemic in any country; it’s just the beginning of the next phase.”
“It’s vital in this next phase that countries educate, engage and empower their people to prevent and respond rapidly to any resurgence”, he said adding that it was essential to ensure they have capacity to “detect, test, isolate and care for every case, and trace every contact, and to ensure their health systems have the capacity to absorb any increase in cases.”
He welcomed a pledge from G20 chairman, Saudi Arabia of $500 million to support global efforts against the pandemic, including concrete action with the G20 Global Innovation Hub for Improving Value in Health, the Digital Health Task Force and the Global Patient Safety Leaders Group.
The WHO chief said he was deeply concerned that the virus now appears to be “gathering pace in countries that lack the capacity of many G20 countries to respond to it. Urgent support is needed, not only to support countries to respond to COVID-19, but to ensure other essential health services continue.”
He added that “since the beginning”, WHO had “sounded the alarm bell loud and clear,” responding to criticism from the US and other skeptics over the UN agency’s handling of the early stage of the international health emergency in China.
“And we continue to fulfill our mandate to coordinate the global response, working with partners to save lives. We’ve engaged thousands of scientists and experts all over the world to develop detailed technical guidance for countries.
We’ve shipped supplies of lab diagnostics and personal protective equipment to many countries, and expanded testing capacity.”
Tedros noted that WHO had provided training for more than 1.5 million health workers, launched the Solidarity Trial, to generate robust safety and efficacy data about the four drugs which could lead to a breakthrough in treatment to lower the fatality rate.
The international community has rallied in support of the global response, he told the G20, with more than $900 million pledged thus far for the agency’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan. He said he was deeply concerned that the virus now appears to be “gathering pace in countries that lack the capacity of many G20 countries to respond to it. Urgent support is needed, not only to support countries to respond to COVID-19, but to ensure other essential health services continue.”
Through the UN Supply Chain Task Force, he said WHO was working with the World Food Programme (WFP) and other partners to distribute personal protective equipment to countries all over the world.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of a simple truth: we are one humanity. We share the same planet. We share the same hopes and dreams. We share the same destiny”, he added.
