Countries cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded – WHO DG

The World Health Organization called on all countries on Monday to ramp up their testing programmes as the best way to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have a simple message to all countries – test, test, test,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Geneva.

“All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded,” he added.

Meanwhile a senior WHO official said on Monday it will take “a change in mindset” to overcome supply shortages in things such as protective equipment and test kits to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have to now seriously scale it up. It needs to become industrialised to a degree,” said Paul Molinaro, in charge of operations, support and logistics at the World Health Organization in response to a question about how countries can ramp up their efforts to fight the virus amid the shortages.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also told journalists he was working with the private sector to increase production of protective equipment, describing the current shortage as a “market failure”.

Via WHO