WHO warns of rush to lift restrictions

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday warned countries that the coronavirus could resurge if they rush to lift restrictions too quickly.

According to the WHO, more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide were reported up to Friday, with more than 50,000 deaths.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the current situation as more than a health crisis.

"We are all aware of the profound social and economic consequences of the pandemic," he told a virtual press conference from Geneva.

"The best way for countries to end restrictions and ease their economic effects is to attack the coronavirus, with the aggressive and comprehensive package of measures that we've spoken about many times before: find, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact," he said.

Tedros warned that if countries rush to lift restrictions too quickly, the coronavirus could resurge and the economic impact could be more severe and prolonged.

"Financing the health response is an essential investment not just in saving lives, but in the longer-term social and economic recovery," he said.

US President Donald Trump had earlier mentioned the possibility of reopening the US economy by Easter. But he later changed his mind and instead extended the guidelines on social distancing until April 30.

By 7:30pm CEST, the Johns Hopkins University has reported 257,773 cases in the US, more than any other country.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was also present at the Friday news briefing.

"We are now in recession, it is way worse than the global financial crisis. It is a crisis that requires all of us to come together," she said.

Georgieva said that the WHO is there to protect the health of the people and the IMF is there to protect the health of the world economy.

"They both are under siege. Only united we can do our duties," she said.

In a joint op-ed on April 3 in the British newspaper The Telegraph, Tedros and Georgieva wrote that the course of the global health crisis and the fate of the global economy are inseparably intertwined. "Fighting the pandemic is a necessity for the economy to rebound," they wrote.

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