WHO releases 'life-saving' guidelines for health professionals treating coronavirus COVID-19 patients

In an apparent effort to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 while still maintaining essential services, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday (March 30) published 'life-saving' guidelines, including measures to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, while conitnuing with the basic emergency services. 

“To help countries manage the surge in #COVID19 cases while maintaining essential services, WHO has published a detailed, practical manual on how to set up and manage treatment centres for COVID-19,” said TA Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. 

The manual is available on WHO’s official website who.int. The detailed manual covers the essential structural design, infection prevention and control measures, as well as ventilation systems. “This is a life-saving instruction manual to deal with surge of cases that some countries are facing right now,” said the WHO chief.

“Even though we’re in midst of crisis,essential health services must continue. Babies are still being born, vaccines must still be delivered and people still need life-saving treatment for a range of other diseases,” he added.

It is to be noted that the global health agency is also working with its partners to “massively” increase access to life-saving products, including diagnostics, personal protective equipment, medical oxygen, ventilators and more.

Notably, the worldwide tally of coronavirus COVID-19 deaths on Monday (March 30) night at 11:40 pm reached 36,211 with 7,55,591 positive cases, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest data. Italy and US have been the worst-hit nations with the former witnessing the most deaths (11,591) and the latter having the most number of confirmed cases of 1,48,089.

Italy, the world`s hardest hit country which accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities, saw its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on February 21. The number of new cases rose by just 4,050, the lowest amount since March 17, reaching a total of 101,739.