Coronavirus: WHO chief self-isolates after coming in contact with COVID-19 positive person

The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late Sunday that he was self-quarantining after someone he had been in contact with tested positive for Covid-19, but stressed he had no symptoms.

Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday (November 1) informed that he had been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for coronavirus COVID-19.

However, he added that he was feeling well and did not have any symptoms. Tedros said that he will remain in quarantine over the next few days.

"I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.

"I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home," he added.

Tedros has been at the forefront of the United Nations health agency's efforts to battle the pandemic. 

Tedros stressed on Twitter that "it is critically important that we all comply with health guidance."

"This is how we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems."

The 55-year-old former Ethiopian minister of health and foreign affairs has for months reiterated that each person has a role to play in halting the spread of the virus.

The WHO urges all individuals to be careful about hand-washing, wearing masks and keeping a distance, while it calls on authorities at various levels to work to find, isolate, test and care for cases, then trace and quarantine their contacts.

Covid-19 has claimed nearly 1.2 million lives and infected over 46 million people worldwide since emerging in China late last year.