London - Countries can't simply lock
down their societies to defeat coronavirus, the World Health
Organization's top emergency expert said on Sunday, adding that
public health measures are needed to avoid a resurgence of the
virus later on.
"What we really need to focus on is finding those who are
sick, those who have the virus, and isolate them, find their
contacts and isolate them," Mike Ryan said in an interview on
the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"The danger right now with the lockdowns ... if we don't put
in place the strong public health measures now, when those
movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is
the disease will jump back up."
Much of Europe and the United States have followed China and
other Asian countries and introduced drastic restrictions to
fight the new coronavirus, with most workers told to work from
home and schools, bars, pubs and restaurants being closed.
Ryan said that the examples of China, Singapore and South
Korea, which coupled restrictions with rigorous measures to test
every possible suspect, provided a model for Europe, which the
WHO has said has replaced Asia as the epicentre of the pandemic.
"Once we've suppressed the transmission, we have to go after
the virus. We have to take the fight to the virus," Ryan said.
Italy is now the worst hit country in the world by the
virus, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that
Britain's health system could be overwhelmed unless people avoid
social interactions. British housing minister Robert Jenrick
said that production of tests would double next week and ramp up
thereafter.
Ryan also said that several vaccines were in development,
but only one had begun trials in the United States. Asked how
long it would take before there was a vaccine available in
Britain, he said that people needed to be realistic.
"We have to make sure that it's absolutely safe... we are
talking at least a year," he said.
"The vaccines will come, but we need to get out and do what
we need to do now."