WHO praises Pakistan once again for fighting COVID-19, saving economy

The World Health Organization (WHO) has once again praised Pakistan for its successful strategy against the novel coronavirus.

In an op-ed in the British online newspaper The Independent, Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote that many countries with the right infrastructure in place were able to act early to contain COVID-19 before transmission got out of hand.

He lauded Pakistan's strategy saying that the country deployed the infrastructure built up over many years for polio to coronavirus.

He also wrote that those community health workers who were trained to go door-to-door vaccinating children against polio have been redeployed and utilized for surveillance, contact tracing and care.

WHO includes Pakistan among 6 countries 'the world can learn from'

The director continued that this strategy by Pakistan suppressed the virus which led to the revival of the economy.

"Reinforcing the lesson that the choice is not between controlling the virus or saving the economy; the two go hand-in-hand," he wrote.

Earlier, Tedros had listed Pakistan among six countries from which the international community should learn how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.