#WHO emphasizes importance of contact tracing to curb #COVID_19

The World Health Organization on Monday called for a step up in contact tracing as a major tool to suppress COVID-19 transmission as the pandemic continues to rapidly spread around the world, including among indigenous peoples.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep concern about the impact of the novel coronavirus on indigenous peoples in the Americas, which remains in the current epicenter of the pandemic.
"One of the key tools for suppressing COVID-19 transmission in indigenous communities and all communities is contact tracing," Tedros told a virtual news conference from Geneva.
He noted that lockdown measures can help reduce COVID-19 transmission, but they cannot completely stop it. "No country can get control of its epidemic if it doesn't know where the virus is," he said.
Tedros described contact tracing as essential for finding and isolating cases and identifying and quarantining their contacts.