WHO says countries need to use confinement time to attack coronavirus

ZURICH / GENEVA, Mar 25 (Reuters) – Countries that have confined their populations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus need to use time to find and attack the virus, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

“Asking people to stay home and stopping the movement of the population is buying time and reducing pressure on health systems. On their own, these measures will not end epidemics,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“We call on all countries to use this time to attack the virus,” said Tedros at a press conference.

Countries need to expand, train and deploy their health care and public health work forces, as well as implement systems to find each suspected case and increase the evidence, he added.

(Report by John Revill and Stephanie Nebehay; Edited in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida)