According to Ryan, the best way to curb the coronavirus outbreak was to couple restrictions with rigorous measures to test every possible suspect (Photo Credit: Pixabay)
New Delhi:
The World Health Organisation's top emergency expert said that only lockdowns are not enough to end the novel coronavirus outbreak. He said that countries can't simply lock down their societies to defeat coronavirus adding that public health measures are needed to avoid a resurgence of the virus later.
"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," Mike Ryan said in an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, according to news agency Reuters.
"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," he was quoted as saying in the Reuters report.
According to Ryan, the best way to curb the coronavirus outbreak was to couple restrictions with rigorous measures to test every possible suspect. He gave the examples of China, Singapore and South Korea who have followed this strategy to fight the spread of the deadly virus.
"Once we've suppressed the transmission, we have to go after the virus. We have to take the fight to the virus," Ryan was quoted as saying in the report.
India also followed the example of many countries across the world as it declared complete lockdown in several parts of the country. Train, metro and long-distance bus services have been closed with only essential services allowed to operate in 80 districts and 13 states till March 31.
The deadly novel coronavirus outbreak aka COVID-19 has led to seven documented deaths in the country so far. According to ICMR, the total number of positive cases stood at 396 on Sunday evening. (With Agency Inputs)
