News

COVID-19 10 times deadlier than swine flu – WHO

Published

4 years ago

April 13, 2020

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Coronavirus is 10 times deadlier than swine flu, which caused a global pandemic in 2009.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, stated this at a virtual news conference in Geneva on Monday.

Tedros said that the virus could spread more easily in crowded environments like nursing homes, NAN reports.

He said, “We know that early case-finding, testing, isolating, caring for every case and tracing every contact is essential for stopping transmission.

“We know that in some countries, cases are doubling every three to four days.

”Though, the virus accelerates very fast, it decelerates much more slowly; in other words, the way down is much slower than the way up.

“That means control measures must be lifted slowly, and with control. It cannot happen all at once.

“Control measures can only be lifted if the right public health measures are in place, including significant capacity for contact tracing.

“But while some countries are considering how to ease restrictions, others are considering whether to introduce them – especially many low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“In countries with large poor populations, the stay-at-home orders and other restrictions used in some high-income countries may not be practical.

“Many poor people, migrants and refugees are already living in overcrowded conditions with few resources and little access to health care.

“Since the beginning, this has been an area of intense focus for WHO.

“As we have said many times before, this is a new virus, and the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.

“We’re all learning all the time and adjusting our strategy, based on the latest available evidence.

“We can only say what we know, and we can only act on what we know.

“Evidence from several countries is giving us a clearer picture about this virus, how it behaves, how to stop it and how to treat it.’’

Recall that the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of Coronavirus cases in Africa has risen to over 14,000.