WHO warns against lifting quarantine restrictions

PanARMENIAN.Net - World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned has warned that countries that rush to lift quarantine restrictions designed to contain the coronavirus pandemic risk an “even more severe and prolonged” economic downturn and a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

“We are all aware of the profound social and economic consequences of the pandemic,” Tedros said during a briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva on Friday, April 3. “Ultimately the best way for countries to end restrictions and ease their economic effects is to attack the virus.”

Tedros called on countries to help their citizens by expanding social welfare programs, moving financial barriers and ensuring public health measures are “fully funded.”

“If people delay care or avoid it because they can’t afford it, they not only harm themselves, they make the pandemic harder to control and put society at risk,” he said. “This is an unprecedented crisis which demands an unprecedented response.”

There are now more than 1,123,000 cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking figures from the World Health Organization and additional sources.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, over 59,000 people have died, while more than 228,000 have recovered around the globe.