On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that there is no “silver bullet” for coronavirus, investigation into the origins of the virus has begun in China.
The head of the organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reminded all individual citizens and governments to work hard to contain the spread of the virus and to ensure to wear face masks, maintain social distance, double down on testing and contact tracing, describing them as “the basics of public health.”
He said, “We all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection.
“However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment — and there might never be.”
Tedros said that the wearing of face masks will be sending a “powerful message to those around you that we are all in this together.
“When leaders step up and work intensely with their populations, this disease can be brought under control.”
Some countries across the world are experiencing a surge in the number of coronavirus infection cases, with over 690,000 people killed and over 18 million infections globally since the virus broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
China had started its own internal probe into the outbreak, but the WHO had said that China should allow external experts to help in the investigation.
Ghebreyesus said that “The WHO advance team that travelled to China has now concluded their mission,” after an animal health specialist and an epidemiologist were sent to China.
“Epidemiological studies will begin in Wuhan to identify the potential source of infection of the early cases,” Ghebreyesus added.
Virus’ Origins
Health experts say that COVID-19 moved from animals to humans and that the infection could have broken out from a wet market in Wuhan where exotic animals are sold for consumption.
According to the Emergencies Director of WHO, Michael Ryan, a deeper study of the disease’s outbreak is required.
“There are gaps in the epidemiologic landscape, and what is required is going to be a much more extensive, retrospective epidemiologic study to look at those first cases and clusters in Wuhan and to fully understand the links between those cases,” he said.
Adding that “we can then determine at what point, in Wuhan or elsewhere, the animal-species barrier was breached.
“The real trick is to go to the human clusters that occurred first and then to work your way back, systematically looking for that first signal.”
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