Amid the rising coronavirus cases across the globe, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday (March 25) remarked that a lockdown, which is being implemented by India and many other countries to curb the spread of coronavirus, will not be enough to eradicate the deadly virus.
"To slow the spread of Covid-19, many countries introduced "lockdown" measures. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics. We call on all countries to use this time to attack the novel coronavirus. You have created a second window of opportunity," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference.
"Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added.
He further said: "We call on all countries who have introduced so-called lockdown measures, to use this time to attack the virus. You have created a second window of opportunity, the question is how will you use it?"
The WHO chief reiterayted the measures of testing and treating and siad, "Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test, treat and trace is not only the best and fastest way out of extreme social and economic restrictions, but they're also the best way to prevent them."
Meanwhile, the global death toll due to coronavirus COVID-19 on Wednesday night (11:30 pm IST, March 25) reached 20,499 with total confirmed cases of 4,51,355, according to the Johns Hopkins University's latest graph.
Spain is turning out to the next hotspot of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The death toll in Spain jumped by 738 overnight to exceed that of China, where the disease originated in late 2019.
With 3,434 fatalities, Spain now has the second-highest number of coronavirus deaths globally after Italy's 6,820. Spain's medical facilities are under great stress as hospitals across the country have been overwhelmed by cases and a skating rink in Madrid has been turned into a makeshift morgue.
