The World Health Organization on Sunday urged Southeast Asian countries to speed up Covid-19 vaccination and rigorously implement public h...
The World Health Organization on Sunday urged Southeast Asian countries to speed up Covid-19 vaccination and rigorously implement public health measures to prevent another surge in cases.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO South-East Asia, said these measures needed to be enforced for longer durations, considering that more transmissible “Variants of Concern” were spreading in several countries.
“We need to continuously strengthen our efforts to test, trace and isolate,” Singh said. “Societal interventions such as physical distancing, hand hygiene and proper wearing of masks needs to be stringently implemented.”
Singh added that public health and social measures were cost-effective ways to reduce the spread of Covid-19. “In addition to personal protective measures, they include cleaning, disinfection, ventilation, surveillance,” she said. “Contact tracing, isolation and quarantine. Physical distancing measures such as limiting the size of gatherings, maintaining distance in public or workplaces, domestic movement restrictions; and international travel-related measures.”
Singh urged countries to follow a “risk-based approach” for public health and social measures. “These measures should be implemented by the lowest administrative level and continuously adjusted to the intensity of transmission and the capacity of health systems,” she said.
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