Who: Japan May Need To Scale Up Measures
An official of the World Health Organization says Japan may need to take stronger measures to contain the coronavirus in areas with untraceable infections.
Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, spoke at a news conference in Geneva on Friday.
He said Japan's specialized teams of "cluster busters" have been effective, and gained a lot of "tremendously useful information" on how the disease spreads.
But he pointed to three hot spots including Tokyo with cases in the last couple of weeks that cannot be linked to known chains of transmission.
Ryan said the country may have to scale up testing, isolation and other measures to push down infections.
Saturday marks one month since the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
The latest tally by Johns Hopkins University in the United States shows the virus has infected over 1.65 million people globally, and killed more than 100,000.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there has been "a welcome slowing" of infections in the past week in some of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
But Tedros also warned of "an alarming acceleration" in rural areas of Africa. He appealed for support, saying the WHO anticipates severe hardships for already overstretched health systems.
