WHO reiterates importance of lockdowns to ‘slow the spread’ of Covid-19

4th June 2020

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

     

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Lockdowns, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, have been “a challenging balance” to maintain, says World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa regional director Dr Matshidiso Moeti.

She notes, however, that while the economic impacts thereof have been severe, “an out of control spread of the pandemic could overwhelm countries in other ways”.

In response to a question about the viability of lockdowns during a webinar on June 4, Moeti said lockdowns have “always been a matter of keeping a balance between having an impact on the spread of the virus, and minimising the harmful impact on livelihoods and economies”.

While not aware of any evidence that shows that lockdowns are ineffective in low-income settings, she referred to projections made “of a certain trajectory” of the pandemic, which have said that implementing a lockdown would allow a country the time to scale-up health facilities and measures, like case identification.

This has been done “progressively” in countries across the world, with Moeti acknowledging that the centralisation of health services has allowed for quicker testing, as well as implementing measures to create capacity for isolating positive cases.

With lockdowns slowing the spread of the virus, she said it has subsequently allowed for increased capacity in health, particularly as lockdowns are now being eased across the world, leading to an initial uptick of cases in some countries, like South Africa.

“We can see countries now being more and more capable of stopping a very out of control spread of the virus,” she said.

Malian Investment Promotion, Small- and Medium Enterprise (SME) and National Entrepreneurship Minister Safia Boly agreed with Moeti’s statement, adding that while Mali only implemented an evening curfew, instead of a full lockdown, in response to the virus, it had afforded the country some time to adequately prepare its healthcare services.

“The lockdown, in our view, has helped tremendously at the beginning of the spread of the virus as a means for us to strengthen not only the health system, but also [prepare] psychologically,” she said during the webinar.

With the country’s private sector and SMEs severely impacted as a result, Boly said the Malian government found specific ways for heavily impacted SMEs to have special access to limited areas, thereby allowing them to maintain about 80% of operations.

Despite some countries viewing lockdowns in an increasingly negative light, she highlighted the emergence of digital companies – for the delivery of food and other items – during the lockdown, “which would probably not have surfaced as rapidly if we didn’t have such a lockdown”.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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