Several countries evaluate their plans to lift lockdown and push things back to normalcy once the Coronavirus infection curve flattens. World Health Organisation has a cue for those countries -- but the way back would not be easy.
¡°While COVID-19 accelerates very fast, it decelerates much more slowly,¡± were the exact words of Dr Tedros Adhanom, Director general of the World Health Organization, in a recent address to the world reeling with COVID-19 outbreak.?
Having mentioned the path to be difficult on the way back to normalcy, WHO has laid down guidelines to be followed as countries start lifting the lockdown. In many aspects, these six guidelines will define everyone¡¯s life in the coming months and will be a deciding factor in any country¡¯s tryst to achieve normalcy.
Here is what WHO says -?
The first and foremost requirement for the lockdown to be lifted is for the agencies to have identified all the infected cases in a region and have them under observation. What makes it difficult is that even a single unidentified case can be a source of transmission of the Coronavirus disease to many and hence the lockdown cannot be lifted till the time that is the case.
Countries can start to look towards lifting the lockdown even when the transmission is controlled to ¡°a level of sporadic cases and clusters of cases, all from known contacts or importations.¡± This would basically mean that the transmission has occurred within a closed and identifiable group and there is no risk of a community transmission from an unidentified case.
Medical facilities of many western countries have collapsed under the emergency resulting from the Coronavirus spread. Regardless of the count of those infected, one thing is clear from such examples - the lockdown cannot be lifted till the time such health systems are flooded with cases.
WHO recognises that as the second most crucial guidelines for a lockdown to be lifted. Health system capacities of a nation should be enough to ¡°detect, test, isolate & treat every COVID19 case & trace every contact," it says.
In addition to the region at large, chances of an outbreak in the health facilities of a particular region should also be minimal for things to get back to normal. This is because health facilities, specially the ones being used for the treatment of Coronavirus patients, are hotspots for the transmission of the virus.
If this is not taken care of, stopping the second wave of the Coronavirus infection will almost be impossible and many more people might be infected than at present.
Nobody beckons life to return to normal just as it was before the spread of COVID19. There will be obvious changes to the functioning of societies and a newfound norm will be for the open organisations to have preventive measures in place for its occupants. These might include necessitation of sanitizers, masks and more.
Before any lockdown can be lifted, WHO also urges for countries to have measures in place to ¡°rapidly detect and manage suspected cases among travellers.¡± This is to manage the risk of imported cases through an analysis of the likely origin and routes.
This will ensure that no transmission takes place from one geographic location to another. Even if it does, it would not go unnoticed in this scenario and hence appropriate measures can be taken to isolate those infected.
As mentioned before, there will be a new norm even when the lockdown is lifted. Life will not be back to what it used to be and mobility will still be restricted to much extent. WHO urges that before even minimum mobility is allowed, the masses at large should be educated on the new norm and prevention measures should be followed to the max.
Ultimately, Dr Tedros eyes the development and delivery of a safe and effective vaccine as the only permanent stop to the transmission of the Coronavirus disease. Until that happens, we can expect the lockdown in our regions to be lifted as and when the countries start ticking the six check boxes above.