World News – AU – WHO warns of COVID-19 lockdowns due to economic damage

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The World Health Organization has warned leaders against using COVID-19 lockdowns to tackle epidemics – after previously saying countries should be careful how quickly they reopen

WHO envoy Dr David Nabarro said such restrictive measures should only be dealt with as a last resort, UK magazine The Spectator reported in a video interview

« At the World Health Organization, we are not advocating lockdown as the primary means of controlling this virus, » Nabarro said

« The only time we think a lockdown is warranted is to give you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but overall , we prefer not to do it « 

« Locks have only one consequence that you should never belittle, and that makes the poor much poorer, » he said

« Just look at what happened to the tourism industry in the Caribbean, for example, or the Pacific because people don’t take their vacations, » Nabarro told the store

« Look at what happened to small farmers around the world Look at what is happening to poverty levels It looks like we might have a doubling of poverty in the world by next year We might well have at minus a doubling of child malnutrition « 

The United Nations agency had already warned countries against lifting lockdowns too early during the first wave of the virus

« The last thing a country needs is to open schools and businesses, only to be forced to close them again due to a resurgence, » said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

But Tedros had urged countries to step up other measures, including widespread testing and contact tracing, so they can safely reopen and avoid future lockdowns

« We must achieve a sustainable situation in which we have adequate control of this virus without completely ending our lives, or going from lockdown to lockdown – which has an extremely damaging impact on societies », a- he declared

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Lockdown, World Health Organization, Coronavirus, David Nabarro