COVID-19: WHO chief says UN agency has 'no power or force to reinforce its advice'

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief said on April 27 that it depends on countries’ willingness to accept or reject  UN ncy’s advice since it has "power or force” to reinforce it. Speaking at daily press briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adham Ghebreyesus said that health ncy has been calling on countries since January 30 to prepare to find, test, treat and isolate every COVID-19 patient and trace all contacts.

Dr Ghebreyesus’ reaction came after facing backlash from some countries, especially United States, due to exponential rise in coronavirus cases and death toll due to infectious disease. WHO has been under fire for its alleged slow response to a looming threat of pandemic which has w caused a global crisis and overwhelmed medical facilities around world.

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WHO chief said that y declared highest level of global emergency on COVID-19 on January 30 when re were only 82 cases outside China. re were cases in Latin America, cases in Africa and only 10 cases in Europe when WHO sounded alarm, said Dr Ghebreyesus.

“One thing I would like to assure you is, we continue to give advice based on science and evidence and n it will up to countries wher to take it or t,” Dr Ghebreyesus added.

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'Increasing trends'

As countries around world have started easing lockdown measures with a decline in number of coronavirus cases, WHO urged countries to find, isolate, test and treat all cases of COVID-19 and trace every contact, to ensure se declining trends continue. Dr Ghebreyesus said that pandemic is far from over and WHO is concerned about rising trends in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries.

“As in all regions, cases and deaths are underreported in many countries in se regions because of low testing capacity,” said WHO chief.

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(Im credit: AP)