WHO chief urges European countries to take aggressive measures while easing COVID-19 containment

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday urged the European countries to find, isolate, test and treat all cases of COVID-19 while easing their containment measures.

"As lock-downs in Europe ease with declining numbers of new cases, we continue to urge countries to find, isolate, test and treat all cases of COVID-19 and trace every contact, to ensure these declining trends continue," the WHO chief said at a virtual press conference.

Tedros has repeatedly said that although there's no question that stay-at-home orders and other physical distancing measures have successfully suppressed coronavirus transmission in many countries, the virus remains "extremely dangerous."

He stressed that early evidence suggests that most of the world's population remains susceptible, which means epidemics can easily re-ignite.

As of Monday, the European Region on WHO dashboard has reported a total of 1,341,851 confirmed cases and 122,218 deaths.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)