"Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics," WHO chief said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said that lockdowns, being implemented by several countries to combat COVID-19, will not be enough to eradicate the virus from the world.
"To slow the spread of COVID-19, many countries introduced "lockdown" measures. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics. We call on all countries to use this time to attack the coronavirus. You have created a 2nd window of opportunity," Mr Ghebreyesus said in a daily briefing.
"Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics," he added.
"We call on all countries who have introduced so-called lockdown measures, to use this time to attack the virus. You have created a 2nd window of opportunity, the question is how will you use it?" he said.
"Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test, treat and trace is not only the best and fastest way out of extreme social and economic restrictions, but they're also the best way to prevent them," the WHO chief added.
The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus worldwide has exceeded 4 Lakhs with over 18,000 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation report.