The World Health Organization has called on countries to ‘test, test, test’ for coronavirus - this is why

“We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.”

These are the words of Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaking at a virtual press conference where he expressed concern over the action some nations have taken on detecting and containing the COVID-19 virus.

As global cases exceed 167,000 and continue to rise, he emphasized the critical need to escalate testing, isolation and contact tracing efforts, which he termed the “backbone” of the response.

“Test every suspected case, if they test positive, isolate them and find out who they have been in contact with two days before they developed symptoms and test those people, too,” he said.

Positive testing

Large-scale testing allows health services to quickly identify who has the disease and arrange for them to receive the care needed. Isolating known cases prevents them from coming into contact with others and slows the rate of transmission.

Effective testing programmes allow governments and health authorities to understand how prevalent the disease is and how it is evolving. Tracking positive test results helps authorities make evidence-based decisions to try to slow the spread of the disease.

Identifying and isolating those with the virus also helps to avoid a sudden spike in new patients.

Slowing the rate of new infections reduces the peak of the disease, which can lower the overall number of cases. Effective testing and quarantine measures help ease the pressure on health services, which can quickly become overwhelmed as demand surges for respirators and other critical lifesaving equipment.

On the case

Although no individual country was singled out for criticism by the WHO Director-General, some governments have been slower to respond to the coronavirus outbreak than others.

Aggressive testing and social distancing measures in countries like South Korea, where more than 220,000 tests were conducted, helped identify more than 8,200 people with the virus and slow its transmission. The country has recorded 75 fatalities, a much lower mortality rate than many other COVID-19 hotspots.

By comparison, the absence of a coordinated federal level response in the US could mean many cases remain undetected.

State and local leaders have criticized delays in making tests available at the beginning of the outbreak, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention limited testing to recent visitors to China, then at the heart of the outbreak. Federal regulators have since given private labs permission to conduct tests and Vice President Mike Pence has announced plans to expand testing capabilities across the US.

“For any country, one of the most important things is the political commitment at the highest level,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus states. “All countries should be able to test all suspected cases. They cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded; they should know where the cases are.”