WHO chief in quarantine after contact tests positive for COVID-19
03 November, 2020
The World Health Organization chief said late Sunday that he was self-quarantining after someone he previously been in connection with tested positive for COVID-19, but stressed he had no symptoms.
"I have been discovered as a contact of anyone who has tested positive for #COVID19," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.
"I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, consistent with @WHO protocols, and work from home," he added.
Tedros has been at the forefront of the US health agency's efforts to fight the pandemic.
COVID-19 has claimed almost 1.2 million lives and infected over 46 million persons worldwide since emerging in China late last year.
Tedros stressed on Twitter that "it is critically important that people all adhere to health guidance."
"This is one way we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems."
The 55-year-old former Ethiopian minister of health and foreign affairs has for months reiterated that every person includes a role to play in halting the spread of the virus.
The WHO urges all individuals to be cautious about hand-washing, wearing masks and keeping a distance, although it calls on authorities at various levels to work to find, isolate, ensure that you care for cases, then trace and quarantine their contacts.
His comments came as there keeps growing anger and exasperation over new coronavirus curbs as several European nations wound back the clocks to the spring with fresh lockdowns and restrictions targeted at halting galloping infections and deaths.
European governments are desperate to stem the worrying spike in infections.
The continent has registered more than 279,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Geneva, where WHO is headquartered, declared a brand new state of emergency on Sunday and said it would go beyond Swiss national measures and turn off all bars, restaurants and non-essential shops.
Authorities in the region of some 500,000 persons said the new measures were needed because of surging cases -- with an increase of than 1,000 positive daily tests in recent days -- and in addition ballooning numbers of COVID-19 patients in Geneva hospitals and emergency care units.
The health situation can be deteriorating in america, which under President Donald Trump has become one of the harshest critics of WHO and its own leader over the COVID-19 response.
Trump is pulling the U.S. out of your WHO, accusing it to be a "puppet" of China and of mismanaging its handling of the global pandemic.
Source: japantoday.com
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