WHO: Europe And North America Should Be Examples Of Handling COVID-19 In Asian Countries

Ilustrasi photo (Ali Burak Subaşı / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) praises the handling of COVID-19 in Asia. WHO even calls on European and North American countries to learn from Asian countries.

Emergency experts representing WHO, Mike Ryan conveyed this. Specifically, he said there were at least two things that could be replicated: quarantine and contact tracing of COVID-19 patients.

The WHO-monitored European region - which includes Russia - has reported up to 8,500 deaths in the past week. Some countries have even seen a 50 percent increase in cases.

In recent months, authorities in Australia, China, Japan and South Korea have managed to reduce the spread of the virus by finding cases, isolating and quarantining people who are infected and indicated by COVID-19.

Mike Ryan also highlighted residents of Asian countries who show a "greater level of trust" in their governments. "In other words they run over the finish line and beyond," said Mike Ryan, quoted by Reuters, Tuesday, October 20.

"They are still running, because they know that the game is not over, that the finish line is wrong. So many countries have put an imaginary finish line and when they cross this maybe they have slowed down some of their activities," he added.

"Countries in Asia, South Asia, West Pacific that I think are working, are really continuing the core activity."

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged authorities to survive the fight against the corona virus which has infected more than 40 million people and claimed more than one million other lives globally. "I understand there is fatigue, but the virus has shown that once we let our guard down, it can re-emerge at a very fast rate and threaten hospitals and health systems," said Tedros.