Lockdown Might Be The Only Response To Coronavirus Again – WHO

The World Health Organization, WHO has come out to say that nations all over the world might need to lock down again as COVID-19 cases keep rising across the globe.

WHO recently revealed that there are now more than 12 million cases worldwide, which is more than double the amount reported six weeks ago.

According to the executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, Dr. Michael Ryan, even if we all want to avoid a total lockdown in the nearest future, that might be the only response to the current situation.

He added that it was always clear that as soon as the previous lockdown ended, the virus could be triggered again.

His words, “We all want to avoid whole countries going back into total lockdown, that is not a desire that anybody has. But there may be situations in which that is the only option.”

“Once lockdowns were ended there was always the risk that the disease could bounce back,”

“Accept the fact that in our current situation it is very unlikely that we can eradicate or eliminate this virus,”

“When the virus is present there is a risk of spread.”

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO added, “Across all walks of life we’re all being tested to the limits,”

“The best shot we have is to work together in national unity and global solidarity.”

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Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that can be mild, such as some cases of the common cold (among other possible causes, predominantly rhinoviruses), and others that can be lethal, such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. Symptoms in other species vary: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.

Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria. They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases, the largest among known RNA viruses. The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”, which refers to the characteristic appearance reminiscent of a crown or a solar corona around the virions (virus particles) when viewed under two-dimensional transmission electron microscopy, due to the surface covering in club-shaped protein spikes.

Human coronaviruses were first discovered in the late 1960s. The earliest ones discovered were an infectious bronchitis virus in chickens and two in human patients with the common cold (later named human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43). Other members of this family have since been identified, including SARS-CoV in 2003, HCoV NL63 in 2004, HKU1 in 2005, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 (formerly known as 2019-nCoV) in 2019. Most of these have involved serious respiratory tract infections.