Unlocking towns and cities: COVID-19 exit strategy

• Published in: Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal
• Main Authors: Rawaf, S, Quezada Yamamoto, H, Rawaf, D
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: World Health Organization (WHO) 2020
• Subjects: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Health Care Sciences & Services; Health Policy & Services; Public; Environmental & Occupational Health; 1117 Public Health and Health Services; 1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences; General & Internal Medicine; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/78690; https://doi.org/10.26719/emhj.20.028

The novel Coronavirus SARS-2 represents a major global challenge since the first cases were diagnosed in China and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31 December 2019 (1). On 9 January 2020, WHO issued a statement warning of the ‘risk’ of human-to-human transmission, although China did not report such a meth-od of transmission (2). WHO officially declared a Public Health Emergency on 30 January 2020 and the disease was named COVID-19 on 11 February 2020. On 11 March, it was characterized as a pandemic when the number of cases increased 13-fold. At this point, it had spread to over 60 countries across all continents except Antarctica, with an immediate and profound effect on societies and brought social and economic life to a virtual standstill. As of 30 April, 2020, 3 271 892 cases of COVID-19 were report-ed globally with 232 817 deaths (3). More than one-third of the world population was locked down (4), as part of the ‘suppression’ strategy first proposed by Imperial College London, United Kingdom (5). Such a strategy is aimed at reducing the spread of infection, protect health services and save lives. However, it has a major economic impact globally and has had a deep social and psychological im-pact on many people. Therefore, it is not feasible to main-tain the current lockdown indefinitely. This commentary aims to define the public health principles and the meas-ures that must be considered for a science-based political decision to unlock towns and cities.