WHO Says COVID-19 Transmission Largely Occurs At Household Level Amid Lockdown

WHO Says COVID-19 Transmission Largely Occurs at Household Level Amid Lockdown

WHO Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Michael Ryan said on Monday that amid a lockdown in many countries, COVID-19 transmission is mostly happening at the level of households, when the infection is brought to a family unit from outside by one of members and then is spreading among others

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2020) WHO Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Michael Ryan said on Monday that amid a lockdown in many countries, COVID-19 transmission is mostly happening at the level of households, when the infection is brought to a family unit from outside by one of members and then is spreading among others.

"At the moment, in most parts of the world, due to the lockdown, most of the transmission that is actually happening in many countries now is happening in household at the family level. In some sense, transmission has been taken off the streets and pushed back into family units. Now, we need to go and look in families to find those people who may be sick and remove them and isolate them in a safe and dignified manner," Ryan said at a press conference.

Ryan said that medical workers around the world were working to identify cases at the level of communities, as "the most likely person to become a case is someone who has been a significant contact of another case."

The number of COVID-19 cases passed 740,000 on Monday, with more than 35,000 people dying from virus-related complications. WHO has released guidelines on how to best meet the needs of the people, while mitigating the risk of health systems collapsing.