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he World Health Organisation (WHO) has lauded India for announcing a series of measures to take care of communities directly affected by the ongoing lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus.
Responding to a question from India Today TV, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said India’s action was “very, very important”, pointing to the economic consequences of a shutdown and the high risk faced by workers living on daily subsistence.
That’s why India is taking measures like the Rs 1.7 lakh crore stimulus plan announced last week, he said.
“That’s the kind of support we say should be given,” he said, underscoring the need to assess how public health measures will affect communities.
Ghebreyesus also noted that many developing nations can’t support affected communities during lockdowns, and urged others to help them using debt relief.
INDIA’S PROGRESS
It’s “a little early” to evaluate the impact of India’s lockdown on the coronavirus outbreak, said WHO executive director Mike Ryan.
“Lockdowns and shutdowns should just be part of an overall comprehensive strategy,” he explained.Socities need to implement “a consistent policy for a period of time and then see where that takes us, and then measure, and see what we need to do next.” he said. “We need to be very careful not to knee jerk…not to be changing policies every single day”.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19 (the name of the new coronavirus disease), said the UN body was using specific criteria to track progress made by nations — these include testing strategies, movement restrictions, the percentage of positive cases and surveillance strategies.
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