WHO highlights Pakistan among countries world can learn from to fight future pandemics

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Pakistan in his media briefing on COVID-19.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted Pakistan among other countries – including Thailand, Italy, Mongolia, Mauritius and Uruguay – the world can learn from to fight future pandemics.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Pakistan in his opening remarks at a media briefing on COVID-19, highlighting the use of infrastructure made for polio to counter coronavirus.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Pakistan deployed the infrastructure built up over many years for polio to combat COVID-19. Community health workers who have been trained to go door-to-door vaccinating children for polio have been utilized for surveillance, contact tracing and care.”

The WHO DG further said there are many other examples we could give, including Cambodia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Viet Nam and more.

“Many of these countries have done well because they learned lessons from previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, measles, polio, Ebola, flu and other diseases. That’s why it’s vital that we all learn the lessons this pandemic is teaching us,” he added.