WHO chief says there is 'no excuse' for countries failing in COVID-19 contact tracing

The World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on June 29 said that tracing people with COVID-19 is an important step and countries which are failing to do so have ‘no excuse’. While speaking at a briefing, Tedros pointed out that many public health professionals have risked their lives to do contact tracing in an active conflict zone. He further added that if any country finds the process of contact tracing difficult, then that is just a ‘lame excuse’. 

Tedros said, “No excuse for contact tracing. If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse”. 

While he acknowledged the progress made by several countries and the pandemic actually ‘speeding up’, he also warned that it is not even close to being over. With people still being susceptible, Tedros said that the deadly virus still has a lot of room to move. The WHO chief also praised South Korea for managing to contain the spread of the disease. He said that South Korea successfully curb the spread because they tacked down the contacts of those carrying the infection. 

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Tedros added that South Korea contained the spread even in ‘extreme conditions’. Further, he even said that WHO itself had shown the importance of contact tracing as it halted an outbreak of Ebola in eastern Congo. The WHO chief said that the organisation traced 25,000 contacts a day in a remote area where some 20 armed groups were fighting. 

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Tedros calls for ‘active collaboration’ 

Tedros’ concern about contact tracing comes after countries with a large outbreak of COVID-19, including Britain and the US, said that there are simply too many contacts to trace for an effective system to be put into place. Britain had also vowed to have a contact tracing system in place, however, the UK government reportedly ditched the digital app as they believed that their contact tracers failed to reach about one-quarter of people with the virus. 

Meanwhile, with the deadly virus spreading across the globe, recently the WHO chief also said that a global initiative to speed up the development and production of COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatments will require more than $30 billion over the next year. He called for an ‘active collaboration’ between government, industry, health organisations, civil society organisations and communities. Tedros called the vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics a ‘vital tool’, however, he also added that they will truly be effective if they get administered with ‘solidarity’. 

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