The time when people thought coronavirus was a “little flu” is far away now and most of the world population now understands how deadly the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, is and how importance it is to observe barrier gestures and respect confinement.
Speaking of confinement (and especially deconfinement), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the man running the World Health Organization, held an online press conference this Monday April 13, from Geneva.
“We know that COVID-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly, 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic”, H1N1 virus or swine flu. This is why the World Health Organization calls “for slow deconfinement” he said.
For the record, swine flu killed 18,500 people according to WHO while the coronavirus epidemic is now getting close to 120,000 deaths worldwide, according to the latest official reports. Comparatively, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people every year according to the world’s health authorities.
While waiting for a vaccine against coronavirus, the World Health Organization calls on countries to set up general screening test of suspicious cases, quarantining the latter and following their contacts up; even though Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledges that “global connectedness could mean the risk of re-introduction and resurgence of the disease will continue”.
“We know that in some countries, cases are doubling every three to four days. However, while COVID-19 accelerates very fast, it decelerates much more slowly. […] Control measures can only be lifted if the right public health measures are in place, including significant capacity for contact tracing” WHO director general added.
