WHO chief warns against easing coronavirus lockdowns

Dr Tedros said that the pandemic had highlighted the best and worst of humanity, and spoke of how science had been hailed and scorned and geopolitical divisions were thrown into sharp relief. He warned the world against lifting lockdowns saying it as the real risk of handicapping their recovery.

Geneva:The head of the World Health Organisation Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that countries who move too fast to reopen their economies without putting on place systems to detect and suppress the transmission of COVID-19, run the real risk of handicapping their recovery.

"There is no silver bullet. There is no simple solution. There is no panacea. There is no one size fits all approach. It takes hard work, fidelity to science, learning, adapting as you go, and difficult decisions," Tedros told the WHO’s annual assembly.

He said that the pandemic had highlighted the best and worst of humanity, and spoke of how science had been hailed and scorned and geopolitical divisions were thrown into sharp relief. "We have seen what's possible with cooperation and what's at risk without it," he said.

Calling on nations to continue to back the World Health Organisation, Tedros said the world could no longer afford the short term amnesia that has characterised its response to health security for too long.

He argued the world did not lack the tools, science or the resources to make it safer from pandemics. "What it has lacked is the sustained commitment to use the tools, the science, and the resources it has. That must change and it must change today."

(AP)