“This is not the time for complacency. While we continue to receive encouraging news about COVID-19 vaccines and remain cautiously optimistic about the potential for new tools to start to arrive in the coming months,” Ghebreyesus stated.
Ghebreyesus warned that particularly in Europe and the Americas, health workers and health systems are being pushed to the breaking point.
“We’ve seen that those countries which invested in case finding, care and isolation, cluster investigations, adequate testing with rapid results, contact tracing and supported quarantine are facing much less disruption. “
“Cluster investigations and contract tracing are part of the bedrock of a successful public health response,” Ghebreyesus said, adding that these actions help prevent individual cases from becoming clusters, and clusters turning into community transmission.
Ghebreyesus also urge the countries to invest in the systems that will prevent further waves of the virus.