World Health Organisation to nations: Max vaccination must to prevent surge

New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday called upon countries in its south-east Asia region to scale up public health infrastructure, rigorously implement social measures and make efforts to accelerate vaccination to prevent another COVID-19 surge.

This week, Maldives and Myanmar confirmed the transmission of coronavirus variants of concern. Earlier, variants of concern have been confirmed in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste, the global health body said.

The coronavirus variants of concern along with the opening of economies and societies contributed to the recent surge in cases globally.

"We need to continuously strengthen our efforts to test, trace and isolate. Physical distancing, hand hygiene and proper wearing of masks need to be stringently implemented.

"These measures should be in full force and for longer periods in areas reporting more transmissible variants of concerns," said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia.