Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
China
Home / China / Latest

WHO: China's strategy 'right one'

By AI HEPING in New York and ANGUS MCNEICE in London | China Daily Global | Updated: 2020-02-20 00:52
Share
Share - WeChat
File photo: the emblem of WHO. [Photo/Agencies]

Agency's leader on emergencies calls strict measures 'very good public health practice'

A World Health Organization official expressed support and praise on Tuesday for China's strict measures to control the novel coronavirus outbreak, countering claims by some that they are too harsh.

"You can argue whether those measures are excessive or whether they're restrictive on people, but there's a lot at stake here, an awful lot at stake, in terms of public health and in terms of not just the public health of China, but people all over the world," Michael Ryan, a WHO leader on health emergencies, said at a news conference on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

Finding the balance between civil liberties and necessary restrictions is sometimes difficult, Ryan said. "Right now, the strategic and tactical approach in China is the right one," he said.

"If you look at what's happening in Wuhan now, the government authorities in China spent a number of weeks pressuring the virus, and you saw the numbers have dropped away," he said. "Now they have engaged in door-to-door surveillance and they are going around doing active surveillance. This is a very good public health practice."

Ryan added: "Beijing is a central point in the country where many, many workers return to. So what China is trying to do is, while they are getting success in putting out one fire, they don't want the fire to start somewhere else."

Lawrence Gostin, an expert in public health law and professor at Georgetown University in Washington, told time.com recently that quarantines are beneficial: "While expensive, it's more than worth it. It prevents spread of serious illnesses. And it's far less costly than having to hospitalize many patients who could contract the coronavirus infection."

Michael J. Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme and Maria Van Kerkhove, Head a.i. Emerging Diseases and Zoonosis attend a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, January 29, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Ryan also backed Japan's decision to quarantine the cruise liner Diamond Princess, which has been docked in Yokohama since Feb 4.

"It's very easy in retrospect to make judgments on public health decisions made at a certain point," he said.

Ryan said the WHO is eager to study the cruise-ship transmission to understand what went wrong, so those lessons can be applied to similar efforts in coming days.

China announced on Wednesday morning that the number of cases was at 74,280-up 1,752 from the day before-and the death toll stands at 2,006, an increase of 136, the authorities said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that the agency's experts are still struggling to understand how fatal and contagious the viral disease is outside China.

"We don't have enough data on cases outside China to make meaningful conclusions," he said at a news briefing in Geneva, noting that there haven't been sustained human-to-human transmissions outside China except for those on the Diamond Princess.

The WHO has shipped personal protective equipment and other supplies to 21 countries so far, and Ghebreyesus said an additional 106 are to follow.

"We still have a chance of preventing a broader global crisis," said Tedros. The WHO "will continue working night and day with all countries to prepare them".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that one of his biggest concerns is the possible spread of the coronavirus to countries with "less capacity in their health service".

Guterres told The Associated Press in Pakistan that if that were to happen, those countries would require much international help and solidarity.

Egypt has reported its first case of the virus, sparking fears that it could spread across Africa, which is particularly ill-equipped to handle such epidemics.

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US