World Health Organization Health Emergencies Programme head Michael Ryan at a news conference Jan 12 in Geneva. — AFPA top world health official on May 11 warned that countries are essentially driving blind in reopening their economies without setting up strong contact tracing to beat back flare-ups of the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, Dr Michael Ryan, said that robust contact tracing measures adopted by Germany and South Korea provide hope that those countries can detect and stop virus clusters before they get out of control. Only on May 11 did his administration say it believed it had enough tests for a nationwide testing campaign to address significant death rates in nursing homes and other senior care facilities.
France’s health minister has promised robust contact tracing and pledged the country would test 700,000 people weekly. On May 11, with progress unclear, the nation's highest court ordered the government to take extreme care in protecting privacy rights, casting doubt on how to proceed. Meantime, a new study indicates that New York City’s death toll from the coronavirus may be thousands of fatalities more than the official tally.
In loosening up their country's lockdown, German authorities have spelled out a specific level of infection that could lead to the reimposition of local area restrictions. Other countries – and United States states – have been vague about what would be enough to trigger another clampdown.