WHO on Wednesday noted that over 80% of all cases are from two regions – the Western Pacific and Europe.
The global death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic has crossed 8,900 while the total number of confirmed cases reported so far is more than 2 lakh.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday noted that over 80% of all cases are from two regions – the Western Pacific and Europe and said that it is talking to ministers of health, heads of state, health workers, hospital managers, industry leaders, CEOs and more – to help them prepare and prioritize, according to their specific situation.
Speaking during a media briefing on coronavirus, WHO's Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that physical distancing measures like cancelling sporting events, concerts and other large gatherings – can help to slow transmission of the virus and reduce the burden on the health system. He also added that they can help to make epidemics manageable, allowing targeted and focused measures.
"WHO continues to recommend that isolating, testing and treating every suspected case, and tracing every contact, must be the backbone of the response in every country. This is the best hope of preventing widespread community transmission," he said.
The WHO chief further lauded the researches who are working on developing a vaccine for coronavirus. "As you know, the first vaccine trial has begun, just 60 days after the genetic sequence of the virus was shared by China. This is an incredible achievement. We commend the researchers around the world who have come together to systemically evaluate experimental therapeutics," he said.
Ghebreyesus also informed that WHO and its partners are organizing a study in many countries in which some of these untested treatments are compared with each other. Designed to generate robust data that is needed to show which treatments are the most effective, the study has been named as SOLIDARITY trial.
"The SOLIDARITY trial provides simplified procedures to enable even hospitals that have been overloaded to participate. Many countries have already confirmed that they will join the SOLIDARITY trial - Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, France, Iran, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand - and I trust many more will join," he informed.
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