• April 01, 2020
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WHO says fight against COVID-19 ‘far from over’ in Asia-Pacific

Western Europe and North America may have drawn the world’s attention as the new epicentres of COVID-19, but World Health Organisation (WHO) officials say that the battle against the pandemic is “far from over” in the Asia-Pacific.

Dr. Takeshi Kasai, regional director for the Western Pacific of WHO, noted in a virtual conference that the region “has not yet seen large-scale community transmission” of COVID-19. “This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to keep responding to their local situation,” he said.

The regional director has acknowledged that while there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach effective against the pandemic, there are common practices that have yielded good results. “Those are: finding, isolating and testing case early, tracing and quarantining contact quickly, and putting in place multiple public health interventions to place physical distance between people to slow and stop transmission,” he said.

Kasai cautioned, however, that measures such as physical distancing and testing cases for isolation can only “buy us valuable time to prepare for large-scale community transition.” He urged governments at all levels to keep their focus in fighting the virus.

As of Wednesday morning, 1 April, there have been 858,785 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide with 42.139 recorded deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.