The world never listened to advice on COVID-19 before cases escalated – WHO Chief

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is blaming the rise in cases of the Coronavirus Disease to countries failing to listen and adhere to advice from experts. The development comes as COVID-19 infected cases continue to rise towards the 3-million mark around the world.

It also comes at the height of criticism against WHO from the United States and Taiwan for the way the COVID-19 pandemic was handled. WHO has been blamed for declaring the outbreak a pandemic. But during a press conference last evening, Dr Ghebreyesus said that the world is where it is today because countries did not listen to earlier warnings.

“WHO can only give advice. We give advice based on Science but we cannot force countries to implement our advice. By the time we declared this pandemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concernon January 30, only 83 cases of COVID were reported outside China. Some parts of the world did not have cases but no one listened and that is why we are where we are today,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

According to the director-general, if the world leaders had listened to the advice of the WHO, the number of COVID-19 cases would not be as high as they are today. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world stand at over 3,041,000 cases, with over 211,000 deaths.

He says that the countries that followed their advice during the pandemic have registered lower deaths that those that have not. He says at the end of the day, all countries are responsible for their actions.

Today, many countries are looking at lifting lockdown measures so that life can continue. As this is being done, Dr Ghebreyesus says that it’s important for countries to listen to their recommendations and make decisions accordingly.

“The pandemic is far from over. WHO continues to be concerned about the increasing trends in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries. As lockdowns are eased, due to declining numbers of new cases, we continue to urge countries to find, isolate, test and treat all cases of COVID-19 countries need to and trace every contact, to ensure these declining trends continue,” Dr Ghebreyesus adds.

According to WHO, countries should ease lockdowns after they can carry out mass testing, and can comfortably treat all the confirmed cases.  In addition to this, there need to be provisions to prevent the disease in highly populated public places such as schools and workplaces.

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