GENEVA
Switzerland
The Director General of World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus (pictured), has cited Rwanda among countries which are successfully implementing strict adherence to measures against New Coronavirus as the country plans to reopen airports on August 1.
WHO has urged countries to lift
travel bans imposed due to COVID-19, by reopening airports and borders and
instead direct efforts towards strict adherence to safety measures and
precautions.
In the wake of a new wave of
cases across the world, the global health body said on Monday that travel bans
cannot be indefinite but strict adherence to health measures would help
countries to manage the virus, mentioning Rwanda among the countries which are
doing well in containing the outbreak.
Dr Tedros said during a virtual
news briefing on Monday that countries should do more to reduce the spread of
COVID-19 within their borders and allow travel to resume, signalling the
possibility of the virus staying much longer than expected.
“Where these measures are
followed, cases go down. Where they are not, cases go up,” emphasising that
adhering to health measures including wearing masks, avoiding crowds, ensuring social
distancing and hygiene would be key in managing the outbreak.
“Countries and communities that
have followed this advice carefully and consistently have done well, either in
preventing large-scale outbreaks – like Cambodia, New Zealand, Rwanda,
Thailand, Vietnam and the Pacific & Caribbean islands – or in bringing large
outbreaks under control – like Canada, China, Germany and South Korea,” Dr
Tedros said.
The Head of WHO Emergencies
Programme, Mike Ryan said that travel bans are not sustainable any more as
economies continue to be hard hit.
“It is going to be almost impossible
for individual countries to keep their borders shut for the foreseeable future.
Economies have to open up, people have to work, trade has to resume,” he said.
Dr Tedros also said that the WHO
emergency committee will convene to asses if the declaration that the outbreak
constituted a “public health emergency of international concern” can be revised
or maintained.
“As required under the
International Health Regulations, I will reconvene the Emergency Committee
later this week to re-evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic and advise me
accordingly,” he said, adding that the virus has changed the world.
“It has brought people,
communities and nations together, and driven them apart. It has shown what
humans are capable of – both positively and negatively. We have learned an
enormous amount, and we’re still learning,”The robot, ‘Urumuri’ will be capturing temperature of arriving passengers at Kigali International Airport
If the status is revised and it
is found that the pandemic no longer constitutes a global public health
emergency, focus will be shifted towards containing the virus while allowing
global economies to reopen.
This Thursday will mark 6 months
since WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern
on January 30.
Dr Tedros said that it is the 6th
time a global health emergency has been declared under the International Health
Regulations, but COVID-19 has been by far the most severe pandemic.
“Almost 16 million COVID-19 cases
have now been reported to WHO, and more than 640,000 deaths and the pandemic
continues to accelerate. In the past 6 weeks, the total number of cases has roughly
doubled,”
“When I declared a public health emergency of international concern on the 30th of January – the highest level of alarm under international law – there were less than 100 COVID-19 cases outside of China, and no deaths,” Dr Tedros said on Monday. - Africa
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