• According to Dr. Tedros, Pakistan's experience with the polio immunizations and the infrastructure developed for it came in handy to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Yesterday, Director General of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commended Pakistan's handling of coronavirus infection in his opinion piece published in the British newspaper 'The Independent' about the current situation of COVID-19 globally.

Tedros wrote:

Pakistan deployed the infrastructure built up over many years for polio to combat Covid-19. Community health workers who have been trained to go door-to-door vaccinating children against polio have been redeployed and utilised for surveillance, contact tracing and care.

He further said that the Pakistan government and public not only contained the virus spread in the country but also successfully revived their economy.

This has suppressed the virus so that, as the country stabilises, the economy is also now picking up once again. Reinforcing the lesson that the choice is not between controlling the virus or saving the economy; the two go hand-in-hand, he added.

Addressing the global devastation caused by COVID-19, Tedros wrote in the online news outlet:

One million lives have been lost to coronavirus, but it's never too late to fight back. This milestone is a difficult moment for the world, but there are glimmers of hope that encourage us now and in the near future.

He also mentioned other countries, in addition to Pakistan, who have dealt with the viral infection successfully. These include Thailand, Italy, Uruguay, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Vietnam, etc. According to him, the experience of several of these countries with fighting epidemics like SARS, MERS, polio, measles, Ebola, and flu really helped them to combat the new pathogen.

Concluding his essay, the UN health body chief also gave his proposals to contain the coronavirus spread effectively, he penned:

But the key lesson is the same: no matter where a country is in an outbreak, it is never too late to turn things around. There are four essential steps that all countries, communities and individuals must focus on to take control of the epidemic.  (i) First, prevent amplifying events. Covid-19 spreads very efficiently among clusters of people.  (ii) Second, reduce deaths by protecting vulnerable groups, including older people, those with underlying conditions and essential workers.
(iii) Third, individuals must play their part by taking the measures we know work to protect themselves and others – stay at least one meter away from others, clean your hands regularly, practice respiratory etiquette, and wear a mask. Avoid the “three Cs”: closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings.
(iv) And fourth, governments must take tailored actions to find, isolate, test and care for cases, and trace and quarantine contacts. Widespread stay-at-home orders can be avoided if countries take temporary and geographically-targeted interventions.