The Economy Must Work: Who Predicts the Opening of Borders; The coronavirus pandemic is the most severe test in the history of the World Health Organization (WHO). This was stated by its head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
According to him, over the past 6 weeks, the rate of spread of the disease has doubled. In this regard, a WHO emergency committee will be convened in the coming days.
Ghebreyesus recalled that an international emergency was declared at the end of January, when about 100 cases of infection were recorded in the world (excluding China). At the same time, more than 16.6 million infected have already been identified, of which more than 650 thousand have died.
According to the head of WHO, COVID-19 has changed the world. Some countries and societies have drawn closer to each other, while others, on the contrary, have split.
He noted that the WHO had to deal with other viruses, such as Ebola or HIV, however, none of them led to a halt in the economy.
In turn, WHO Director of Health Emergencies Michael Ryan said that despite the complexity of the situation, a number of countries no longer have the opportunity to keep borders “locked”. National economies must get back to work.
“Keeping international borders closed may not be a sustainable strategy in terms of the global economy,” Ryan said.
The WHO notes that closing borders may be just one factor in limiting the spread of coronavirus, but it is only useful if it works together with other measures to break the chains of infection.
The key factor in containing the virus, according to WHO, is the correction of people’s behavior: social distancing, wearing a mask (if necessary), etc.
“Our new normal life means maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask when necessary. Our new normality means we know exactly where the virus is, where we work, where we live, where we want to travel,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO Covid-19 team.
However, the pandemic is having a negative impact on many charitable programs. So, just because of the coronavirus in the world, about 6.7 million children under the age of five were at risk of hunger.