{"id":397343,"date":"2020-03-07T10:27:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T07:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/?p=397343"},"modified":"2020-03-07T10:27:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T07:27:50","slug":"who-urges-countries-to-make-containing-coronavirus-highest-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/who-urges-countries-to-make-containing-coronavirus-highest-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO urges countries to make containing coronavirus ‘highest priority’"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA\/LONDON:<\/strong>– All countries should make containing the outbreak of COVID-19 their top priority, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, pointing to Iran \u201cnational action plan\u201d to combat one of the world\u2019s worst outbreaks after a slow start.<\/p>\n

The U.N. agency stressed that slowing down the epidemic allowed hospitals to prepare and saves lives, while warning that there was no evidence that spread would wane during the approaching summer months in the northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now on the verge of reaching 100,000 confirmed cases,\u201d WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a daily news briefing. \u201c(The epidemic) is geographically expanding and deeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continuing to recommend that all countries make containment their highest priority,\u201d he added. \u201cIn a globalized world, the only option is to stand together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the tally of cases has already surpassed 100,000 – as the WHO\u2019s figures have generally slightly lagged behind tallies compiled by news organisations including Reuters. As of Friday, more than 100,300 people had been infected globally, according to a Reuters tally based on statements from health ministries and government officials.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Iran\u2019s death toll from corona virus infections jumped on Friday to 124, as 17 died and more than 1,000 new cases were diagnosed over 24 hours, the health ministry said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO\u2019s emergencies programme, said when asked about Iran\u2019s mushrooming outbreak that it resembled China and South Korea which quickly uncovered more cases as they began to do active disease surveillance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also think the Iranian system is switching on. We are seeing a much more all-of-government approach…with a national action plan now, with 100,000 workers committed to this plan,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is much better that we understand the extent of the problem. So we commend the move towards more aggressive, targeted surveillance and we hope that will lead to the kind of control measures that will help push this virus back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan, asked whether the virus may not spread as easily in Europe\u2019s warm summer months, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not know yet what the activity or the behavior of this virus will be in different climatic conditions. We have to assume that the virus will continue to have the capacity to spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt is a false hope to say yes it will just disappear in summertime, like influenza virus…There is no evidence right now to suggest that that will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

@Rueters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA\/LONDON:– All countries should make containing the outbreak of COVID-19 their top priority, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, pointing to Iran \u201cnational action plan\u201d to combat one of the world\u2019s worst outbreaks after a slow start. The U.N. agency stressed that slowing down the epidemic allowed hospitals to prepare and saves lives, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-397343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397345,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397343\/revisions\/397345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}