WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed India's COVID 19 tracking App Aarogya Setu for its role in helping the authorities to identify cluster areas and expand testing in a targeted way. Mr. Ghebreyesus said the pandemic can be overcome quickly if countries use the right tools.

World Health Organization has warned against the idea that herd immunity might be a realistic strategy to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO chief said that such proposals are scientifically and ethically problematic. He said, health officials typically aim to achieve herd immunity by vaccination. WHO chief added that herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.

The World Health Organization has warned that the Novel Coronavirus pandemic threatens to reverse progress towards eliminating tuberculosis, until now the top infectious disease killer globally. WHO said, the countries hit hard by tuberculosis such as India and South Africa have seen resources usually allocated to diagnosing and treating TB diverted to fighting Coronavirus.

The report estimated that TB could cause this year between 2,00,000 and 4,00,000 more deaths than the 1.4 million last year, even though remedies exist.

WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to unwind the gains made over recent years. He said the impact of the pandemic on TB services has been severe. Data collated by WHO from high TB burden countries show sharp drops in TB notifications in 2020.

The report said in India alone, weekly and monthly notifications plunged by 50 per cent from the end of March to end of April following a lockdown in the country, which has the highest number of cases in the world.

Already in early May, the WHO's department to halt tuberculosis estimated that three months of lockdown could lead to six million new infections and 1.4 million extra TB deaths between 2020 and 2025.