New Delhi: India on Sunday, announced a complete lockdown in 75 districts across the country where coronavirus cases have been reported. Across the world, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom etc have put their economies at stake by diverting all their money towards fighting the deadly virus,
In the midst of all this, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dropped a bombshell saying the virus cannot be defeated by lockdown alone.
As the number of global coronavirus cases surpassed 311,000 and the death toll rose to more than 13,400, the WHO’s top emergency expert said on Sunday that countries could not simply lock down their societies to defeat coronavirus without public health measures to avoid a resurgence of the virus down the road.
“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,” the expert, Mike Ryan, said in an interview on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show.” “If we don’t put in place the strong public health measures now,” he said, “when those movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is the disease will jump back up.”
What is happening in the rest of the world?
Italy has deployed the army and risked its economy to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Washington State has warned it could run out of ventilators.
California has reported a dearth of testing kits
Hawaii has ordered a 14-day quarantine for all arrivals.
Spain is extending for another 15 days, the country’s state of emergency.
Croatia reported a quake on Sunday near Zagreb, complicating quarantine measures to slow the spread of the outbreak and sending residents pouring into the streets during a partial lockdown.
Czech Republic has 1,047 coronavirus cases.
France raised its total to 14,459 confirmed cases and 562 deaths by Sunday. It has ordered more than 250 million face masks from French and foreign suppliers.
Britain, local news outlets reported that the National Health Service planned to send personally addressed letters to 1.5 million people judged most likely to die from the disease, saying they should isolate themselves for the next 12 weeks.
Germany plans to spend 10 times what its budget rules normally allow.
Gaza Strip reported the first two coronavirus cases. Aid workers say the virus’s spread could quickly lead to a public health disaster here.
