UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 05 May 2020

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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 05 May 2020

1:36:29

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05-05-2020

Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNHCR , WHO , UNOG , WFP , ILO

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 05 May 2020

ENG

PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), chaired the virtual briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The topics addressed were COVID-19 and the seventy-third World Health Assembly.

COVID-19: impact on Africa

Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), spoke about the new estimates on food insecurity in West Africa. Over 21.2 million people in that region would struggle to feed themselves during the upcoming lean season (June-August) without sustained assistance; an additional 22 million could also struggle to feed themselves in the coming six months because of the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. Many of them were not only hungry or malnourished, but also displaced because of the conflicts in their home regions. Sustained aid efforts by the international community were needed. An adequate response was needed so that the future wellbeing of tens of millions of people across the region is protected, particularly women and children. There were an estimated 12 million children between 6 and 59 months in the region who could be acutely malnourished during the lean season, up from 8.2 million children the previous year. WFP was requiring USD 574 million to adequately address this urgent situation in West Africa over the next six months.

Responding to questions, Ms. Byrs said that the countries of particular concern included the Central African Republic, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, among others. There were 2.2 million children in West Africa who depended on school meals, which they were currently not receiving due to school closures. Ms. Byrs stated that both the traditional donors and the private sector were on board, and the WFP was rather optimistic in this regard.

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), added that West and Central Africa had 5.6 million internally displaced persons and over 1.3 million refugees. Only in Burkina Faso, more than 800,000 people had been displaced due to the insecurity since January 2019, said Mr. Baloch.

COVID-19: situation in Afghanistan

Paul Dillon, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stated that Afghanistan was struggling to safely absorb over 271,000 people who had returned from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan since January at a time when infection rates in Kabul were worryingly high. With almost 2,900 confirmed cases and 90 deaths as of 5 May, Afghan officials had emphasized that short of urgent action, up to 80 per cent of the country’s total population of 35 million could eventually be infected. A key constraint hindering a meaningful response to the pandemic was the low capacity for testing. Another grave concern was that Afghanistan had extremely limited infrastructure to treat severe cases. Social distancing was unfeasible in a country where the average family size was seven and most people lived in small, one-room homes with poor ventilation.

IOM was providing training, personal protection equipment and other critical medical supplies for local health workers and supporting risk communication and community engagement in 25 provinces across 10,000 communities through our data collection tool the Displacement Tracking Matrix. Each year, IOM Afghanistan provided humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of undocumented Afghans returning from Iran. IOM was appealing for an additional USD 5 million in financial support from donor partners to scale up lifesaving COVID-19 response actions in Afghanistan.

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), added that displacement in Afghanistan was ongoing, and that, like the international community, Afghans themselves were hoping that the current peace process would bear fruit. He said that almost 50 percent of those randomly tested for COVID-19 in Kabul had tested positive.

COVID-19: prison conditions in the Americas

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that conditions in many prisons in the Americas region were deeply worrying. Pre-existing structural problems, such as chronic overcrowding and unhygienic conditions, coupled with the lack of proper access to healthcare had enabled the rapid spread of COVID-19 in many facilities. Thousands of inmates and prison officials had already been infected across North and South America. In many countries, the increasing fear of contagion and lack of basic services, such as the regular provision of food due to the prohibition of family visits, had triggered protests and riots.

The scale the gravity of the incidents indicated that States had not taken appropriate measures to prevent incidents. OHCHR reminded authorities everywhere that the use of force needed to be proportionate, and that authorities had an obligation to protect inmates’ physical and mental wellbeing. Independent inquiries ought to be conducted into the circumstances of the deaths and injuries during riots, including any allegation of use of force violations by state agents. States were called upon to take necessary steps to stop further spread of the virus, and to guarantee proper access to food and drinkable water. Conditions of detention should be regularly monitored by independent bodies, and ill detainees ought to be provided appropriate medical care.

Full OHCHR briefing note can be found here.

In an answer to a question, Mr. Colville stated that the United States had a large prison population, and a significant number of COVID-19 cases had been recorded in prisons across the country. An additional issue in the US was that of immigration detention, where a concern was that not enough testing was taking place. On a positive side, tens of thousands of people were reported to have been released in the country. In some countries in the Americas, said Mr. Colville, the overcrowding in prisons was massive, going up to 500 percent of the available places, which made the spread of COVID-19 in prisons ever more dangerous. Mr. Colville referred to the 25 March appeal by the High Commissioner to States to reduce prison overcrowding. Mr. Colville, responding to another question, said that certain categories of prisoners, such as those responsible for mass crimes and crimes against humanity, should not be released, but had to, nonetheless, be protected from COVID-19 while serving their sentences.

COVID-19: general update

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the regular weekly update by the Pan-American Health Organization would be held today at 5 pm Geneva time, and journalists were invited to listen in and ask some of their questions then. Regarding reports of an early COVID-19 case in France, allegedly dating back to December 2019, Mr. Lindmeier said that it was possible that some of the infected people from Wuhan had travelled to Europe already in December. Those findings would help better understand the early circulation of COVID-19. It was possible that more such cases could be found if countries started to retest some of the early samples. Given that the first confirmed case in China had been recorded on 31 December 2019, it was very probable that the first cases there had occurred already in early December or even in November.

Responding to further questions, Mr. Lindmeier said that on the American continent, Brazil was now the second most affected country with some 92,000 confirmed cases. A comprehensive set of measures was needed there, as elsewhere, and included both testing and tracing. Decisions on possible lock downs were to be made by each country individually. All possible treatments or vaccines needed to be checked and tested before being approved and used widely, said Mr. Lindmeier. He also emphasized that it was important to establish a definite origin of the virus, and identify an intermediary which may have helped transmit the virus from a bat to a human. There was no scientific insight yet on whether blood clots contributed to the spread or re-emergence of the virus. Mr. Lindmeier furthermore confirmed that the WHO’s recommendations on travel and trade remained the same; aggressive testing and tracing of suspected cases and contacts was the preferred way to go.

Seventy-third World Health Assembly

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that the next World Health Assembly (18-19 May) and the Executive Board (22 May) would both take place virtually. Those two meetings would focus on the COVID-19 response and executive body elections. Duration of the meetings could be adjusted if needed; the steering committee would meet on 6 May to finalize the plans. All WHA meetings would be webcast; there would be no need for accreditations, as the sessions would be directly transmitted online. Mr. Lindmeier reiterated that it was up to Member States, and not up the Secretariat of the WHO, to decide on whether to invite Taiwan to take part in the upcoming World Health Assembly. Technical cooperation between the WHO and Taiwan was ongoing, he emphasized.

Geneva announcements

Rosalind Yarde, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), informed that on Thursday, 7 May at 2 p.m. the ILO would hold a virtual press conference on the impact of COVID-19 on informal workers around the world. The speakers would be Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the ILO’s INWORK branch, together with experts from Asia, Africa and Latin America and Caribbean, who would be available to take questions, including on the impact of COVID-19 on domestic workers. Relevant materials would be shared with the media in advance.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed about a press conference taking place today at 3 p.m.: Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Houlin Zhao would brief the media on digital transformation in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other speakers would be Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau; Mario Maniewicz, Director, ITU Radiocommunication Bureau; and Dr. Reinhard Scholl, Deputy Director, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

Ms. Vellucci also informed that on 7 May, the international community was marking the Vesak, the day commemoratingthe birth, enlightenment and attainment of nirvana of Buddha. The Secretary-General’s message on that occasion had been shared.

Another policy brief by the UN Secretary-General, this time on the impact of COVID-19 on persons with disabilities, was expected on 6 May, said Ms. Vellucci.

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that today was both the Day of the Midwivesand the Hand Hygiene Day.

Teleprompter

Good morning.

Welcome to this briefing of UN Information Service in Geneva.

And we have a long list of speaker today too.

An interesting menu in front of us, interesting content.

I would like to start.

As for our new format, with the short announcements by colleagues.

So I hope Rosalind is already on the line with us.

She is.

I can see you Rosalind.

You have the floor.

You have a short announcement to make.

I do.

Thank you, Cassandra.

Good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

The ILO will be holding a virtual press conference at 1400 Geneva time on Thursday, 7th of May that will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on informal workers around the world.

And it will provide complementary analysis and data following on from last week's ILO Monitor report.

And if you remember, our last report revealed that 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, that's nearly half of the global workforce standing in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed.

So to answer your questions about this, we'll, we'll have Philippe Marcadon, Chief of the Ilo's in Work branch.

And we'll also have some experts from Asia, Africa and Latin America who will be able to answer your questions about the impact in these regions.

Also on the panel will be an expert who'll be able to take questions on the impact on domestic workers, many of whom are informal workers.

And so we'll be sending you some background briefing notes, including regional data, including Africa and India and others tomorrow.

And materials will be under embargo until the end of the press conference, which will be 1500 Geneva time.

We may actually be able to send you some of the materials by the end of the day, actually.

OK.

And any questions just contact.

Me sorry, I thought that was weird.

Thank you very much.

Rosalind, I don't see for the moment any hands up for you.

So if you can stay with us a little bit more.

But for the moment there is no request for for the floor on my side.

I have just a small announcement.

As you know, on the 7th of May, the international community celebrate the sack, the day of the full moon.

And we have a statement, a message from the Secretary General that we have shared with you that asks on the day we celebrate Lord Buddhist wisdom by taking action for others with compassion and solidarity and renewing our commitment to build a peaceful world.

And you have the message for the 7th that we, I think we have already distributed to you.

So thank you very much.

And let's go now to the briefing on COVID-19.

Elizabeth, you are the first on my list.

I hope you're connected.

Yes, you are.

Let's start with you.

You have a briefing point on the impact of COVID-19 on West Africa, I believe.

Yes.

Good morning.

The other time we spoke about East Africa and all North Africa.

And now I would like to draw your attention on West Africa and on the estimates we the new estimates we have about food insecurity.

COVID-19 threatened to become an extra ingredient in the toxic cocktail of armed conflict, population displacement, climate change that has already resulted in growing rates of anger and malnutrition across West Africa.

An estimated 21 million people over 21 million people across West Africa will struggle to feed themselves this coming lean season between June and August.

Without sustained assistance, WFP estimates that an additional 20 million people could struggle to feed themselves to due to the socio economic impact of COVID-19 in the next 6 months, doubling the number of food insecure to 43 million.

In this region.

Many are not only hungry or malnourished but have also been uprooted from their homes due to conflict, violence and insecurity.

We must sustain our assistance to these people across the region, especially in places such as Central South, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon.

We are concerned about the urban poor.

Those who live end to mouth are most at risk.

They depends on markets for food with little ability to store or save food or money.

They have poor access to diversified nutritious diets or healthcare and live in crowded, unsanitary condition.

We need an adequate response and with if the response is inadequate, it would put the future well-being of millions of people in the region at stake, particularly women and young children, and could spell civil unrest in parts of a region already challenged by insecurity and violent extremism.

Do we are concerned about the movement restriction?

WHO could also affect farmers as we move toward the planting seasons in many countries across West Africa.

We are not.

We are not talking only about adults, but there are an estimated 12 million children aged from 6 to 59 months that could be acutely malnourished in the lean season.

WFP urgently requires an additional $574,000,000 in funding for the next 6 months.

Do have this adequate response to a very dire situation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Elizabeth, for this briefing.

And I see that Catherine would like to ask you a question.

Catherine Cianco morning to all of you.

Good morning to all of you.

I'd like to ask Elizabeth of Elizabeth, sorry first, if she has more details about the, the, the countries that are the most, I would say supposed to have problems.

Is it Cote d'Ivoire?

Is it other countries?

Could you mention the name of the countries?

And would like also to have more details about what's your plans?

What you if you have already some plans in the fields?

Do you have teams?

How do you work?

And also I would like to take the opportunity to ask if you have an update of the demand, the global demand that had been done by the different agencies through the global appeal of the SG of 2 billion.

I know that there was an update undergoing.

We spoke about it last Friday.

So I would like to know if the different agencies that are today attending the briefing have already an answer about the increase of the amount asked globally.

Thank you.

And maybe you yourself, Alessandra.

Yes, Katherine.

Yeah.

I was going to tell you that I think you have received the media advisory that Yance has distributed on the launch of this new the device appeal.

So you should have received that.

I believe this is going to be on the Thursday, on this Thursday, 7th of May Yance is also on the line as are.

By the way, I take the opportunity to remind you that we have also FAOHRC, ARCH, as I said, Ankhta, UNDP, UN Habitat U, NHCR and UNICEF on the line.

Ords, to answer your question.

So I don't know if Jens wants to say something afterwards, but you have received the media advisory and it will be launched on Thursday.

Elizabeth, you want to answer the other multiple questions?

Yeah, we are.

We are particularly concerned in Central African Republic, of course, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Benin, among others.

And you were asking about what WFP is doing to answer this situation.

We are preposition, We are prepositioning 6 months supply food stocks in the region with **** levels of import dependence and several landlocked countries.

We rely on crucial corridors, Duala, Lome, Cotonou, Las Palmas to preposition and because those those food stock will be critical in mitigating possible disruption in food supply chain and ensure that we provide life saving food assistance.

We also distribute take away food ration for children who cannot go to school and cannot benefit from school meals.

There are 2.2 million children in West Africa depending on school meals and they don't receive them anymore.

So we have transformed this in take away ration.

That's what I can tell you.

We have witnesses who, for instance, in Burkina Faso, an IDP who said that he fled his village with his family because of attacks by gunmen.

At the beginning, when the gunmen raid our village, it was to steal our cattle and poultry after they started killing people.

When we started getting food assistance from WFP, it was a really for us.

We can cook now and feed our families again.

And this person said, I heard about the disease called coronavirus.

Every one of us is concerned.

Also, I didn't hear about someone who is infected among us.

It's in a Burkina Faso in Cairo.

And this is the the the testimony of an IDP over.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

I just would like to confirm as I said before that indeed Yen has sent immediate advisory yesterday at 4:30.

And as I said, the launch of the updated COVID-19 global humanitarian response plan will happen on Thursday, 7th of May.

And you have in the media advisory also the instructions to ask questions to the various **** level officials that will launch this updated plan, who are USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, UNI Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, Executive Director of World Food Programme, David Beasley, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies, Mike Ryan, and the President and CEO of Oxfam America, Abbey Maximum.

So you should have this if you haven't, I'm sure Ian's will be happy to send it again or we can do it for him.

OK, next question is from Melissa.

Yes, good morning, everybody.

And Elizabeth, to you specifically, how many people is WFP currently feeding across West Africa?

Also how many countries does that involve?

And if you do not get the money that you need, what 574,000,000 I think you said will you have to cut food rations in the coming months?

Another question is you say you're pre positioning stocks right now, but I'm wondering whether the COVID pandemic is hindering your ability to transport and get the food to the people that need it or if this is something that you worry about in the future.

And then lastly, do you have a figure on how many malnourished children there are in in West Africa?

And if they do not get the special treatment that they need, are you concerned that many of them are at risk of dying?

Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa.

Elizabeth.

Yeah, many question.

The first on maybe I will answer on children.

As I said, we have actually, let me see, we have 12 million children, young children between 6:00 and and 59 months that could be actually malnourished in the lean season.

And we had only 8.2 million children in the same situation last year.

So we are we see an increase of children malnourished.

That's why we must continue to target the people we reach with food assistant.

This is the the key point for WFP.

We are in West Africa in central style.

We are assisting 5 million people just for a central Africa which is Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

To give you this example, we target to reach 100 million people with food assistance in the world in 2020.

This is the key target for WFP and we are doing our best to reach this goal.

This is what we do.

That's why we preposition food.

That's why we set up those six regional herbs in particular Accra in Ghana to continue to distribute food assistance despite the lockdowns, despite roadblocks or slow down of food of the food supply chain.

This is what we are doing now and we hope we will continue to to do so.

I can give you, I can send you more details about each country and the number of people we assist in each country of West Africa.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

And I see that Babar has raised this and maybe he wants to add something on behalf of the **** Commissioner for Refugees.

Babar, you have the floor.

Good morning, Alexandra.

Many thanks and morning to everyone.

Just to reiterate what Elizabeth was saying, in terms of the figures, West and Central Africa is one of the largest displacement situation in Africa.

I mean we are talking about 5.6 million internally displaced people, one more than 1.3 million refugees and 1.6 million stateless.

And Sahil, as Elizabeth was mentioning, has more than 3,000,000 ID PS Let's just not forget that 1,000,000 has been added to this figure since January 2019.

Remember, we have been raising the issue in Burkina Faso and other situations only.

In Burkina Faso we have seen more than 800,000 people being displaced because of insecurity since January 2019.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Lisa.

I see you have raised your hand again.

This is for Babar.

It's, it's, it's a follow up to, to Elizabeth, if I may, please.

Elizabeth, I asked you earlier whether you might have to cut food rations if you don't get the money that you require.

Also, you said that you're 5 million that you're assisting in this in Central Africa, the region, but they're probably more on the rest.

Well, that's OK, never mind.

But but also I asked you whether you were fearful that the COVID pandemic might hinder your ability to transport enough food to the people.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, we are not talking about food ration at the moment.

We are.

That's why we preposition that food in advance, in advance of the rainy season in at in to prevent the slow down of the OR disruption of the supply chain.

That's why we set up those this network of humanitarian hubs and we need money.

We need those $574,000,000 and we are confident that donors will respond to to our appeal.

This is urgent.

Of course, the situation is difficult, but we are confident that we can follow and reach our target no matter the increase of food insecure people.

If we can do our job, if we can distribute, if we can transport and WFP is now deeply involved in the logistic system, by all means, we will do so.

By all means, this is the target.

We must reach those 100 million people around the world who already benefit, those who already benefit from our food assistance, we must reach them.

This is our our mission.

Thank you very much, Elizabeth.

Next question is from Freddy Freddy Monongo, Freddy Montreux.

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Mercy Elizabeth next question Gabriella, hi, hello, good morning to everyone.

Just two two things if if Elizabeth can send us the details also her notes on the each country and and also Babar please what he just said about all these numbers and then so traditional donors are I mean states are in their own a crisis economical crisis.

So are you depending now on more on private sector or or not?

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you Gabriella.

So I'll give the first to Elizabeth and and if you also want to compliment just raise your hand Elizabeth.

No, they traditional donors are on board, private sector is on board.

There is no change so far in the repartition of the funding and I think they will hear our urgent calls for for Africa and for those country would need that morning.

But I think they have been generous so far and we are quite optimistic I hope.

And and Gabriella you can also ask this question if you want to the **** level officials that will be addressing you on the 7th.

As I said in the notes in the media advisory, the way for you to ask questions during the launch of the revised appeal appeal.

So I have Christian and then we will go to Paul.

To Paul Dylan Christian, you have the floor.

Background Understanding questions What exactly is the lean season?

What is being planted or harvested before and after the lean season and is there a lockdown in those countries or what exactly is the coronavirus socio economic impact?

Is there a lockdown or is there a restriction of movements?

Or is this just a fear that this might at some point come?

Yeah, the lean season in the period when the the population of the people have have eaten all their, their provision, their their crops and they are preparing the planting season.

And between two crops you have a couple of months where there are no stocks, where the stocks have been exhausted and depleted.

And in the meantime, we need to, these people need to, to, to eat.

And that's why WFP is particularly worried of the the food insecurity during this this time, this period of the lean season.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

I will go now to our next speaker, Paul Dillon for IOM.

Paul, you're on.

Yeah, you need just to be unmuted one second, please.

All right, you are on.

Go ahead.

Oh yeah.

Good morning.

I wanted to bring you up to speed with regarding IOMS response in Afghanistan to COVID-19.

As the global fight against COVID-19 continues, Afghanistan is struggling to safely absorb the over 271,000 people who have returned from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan since January.

At a time when infection rates in the capital are worryingly ****, with almost 2900 confirmed cases and 90 deaths as of five May, Afghan officials have emphasised that short of urgent actions, up to 80% of the country's total population of 35,000,000 would be infected.

The number of confirmed cases suggests that Afghanistan could have one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the world.

Furthermore, in recent days, results of a randomised sample of 500 persons in Kabul, a city of between 5 and 7 million people, showed an alarming infection rate of 50%.

A key constraint hindering a meaningful response to the pandemic is the low capacity for testing.

8 testing facilities established since January have a daily capacity of between 100 and 150 tests each.

However, there's a significant shortage of trained lab technicians and more testing kits are urgently needed.

Another great concern is that Afghanistan has extremely limited infrastructure to treat severe cases.

Life expectancy is only 50 years for both genders and a **** percentage of the population have pre-existing conditions such as TBHIV, AIDS, malnutrition, cancer, and heart and lung diseases, with environmental pollution another major factor in general population health.

Social distancing is unfeasible in a country where the average family size is 7 and most people live in small confined one room homes with poor ventilation.

Further exacerbating the COVID-19 response is the expansion of the conflict over the past three months for security incidents and a lack of access to non government controlled areas means there is no testing in over 30% of the country.

Despite these seemingly instrumental challenges, IOM is actively responding to COVID-19 and in close partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and The Who, with over 100 health staff deployed to border level surveillance, health facility based interventions and mobile health teams.

If temperature, temperature cheques and symptom screening identify a suspected case, they will be referred by an IOM ambulance to the nearest designated isolation facility.

The same applies in IO Ms migrant transit centres.

IOM is also providing training, personal protection equipment and other critical medical supplies for local health workers and supporting risk communication and community engagement in 25 provinces across 10,000 communities through our data collection tool, the Displacement Tracking Matrix.

With such **** numbers crossing the frontiers, we are also providing coordinated response at points of entry to the Ministry of Health in close partnership with The Who and UNHCR.

Each year, Iowa in Afghanistan provides humanitarian assistance to 10 tens of thousands of undocumented Afghans returning from Iran.

Over 30,000 people have been assisted so far in 2020 through its network of border transit centres.

IOM.

Sorry, I'll just give my my last slide.

IOM is appealing for an additional USD 5 million in financial support from donor partners to scale up its life saving COVID-19 response actions in Afghanistan.

Thank you very much, Paul.

And I remind everybody that Christian Linmayer is also on the line.

He will brief you abundantly afterwards.

But just in case, as Paul has mentioned WHO you had question in Afghanistan, WHO is also with us.

So I have three questions for you lined up.

I will start with Jan Eberman.

Good morning to all.

Can you hear me?

Very well.

OK, great.

I In fact, I have two questions for IOM.

The first is on Afghanistan.

Paul, are there any sort of signs that the conflict parties could endorse the ceasefire call issued by the UN Secretary General?

And secondly, there are reports that 78 migrants are stuck at the Mediterranean at sea and that the Mediterranean countries refuse them to get into their ports.

Have you any comments on this or any follow-ups because you were reporting on that yesterday.

Thanks.

Paul.

Yeah, by all means, let me address the second one first.

I mean, there's no update as of as of yesterday.

As you say, there are 78 migrants who are who are stranded off coast.

And at this time, there's no evidence that port is is port entry, port opening is, is impending.

Regarding the peace process in Afghanistan, I mean, obviously, like all UN partners and NGOs were watching the process very closely.

We're certainly optimistic that something goodwill come of it.

As noted earlier, 1/3 of the country almost is inaccessible.

And at a time when we're responding and the international community is responding to COVID-19, it's absolutely essential that we'd be able to get into those kinds of areas and begin the kinds of surveillance, the mobility mapping that is at the centre of our awareness raising and our community engagement efforts.

Thank you very much, Paul.

Next question is from Stefan, Stefan Bonfour.

Yes.

Can you, can you hear me very well?

Go ahead.

OK.

Yeah.

I was wondering, you were talking about a very **** infection rate of children in Afghanistan.

Is that right?

Did I get that right?

And why is that?

Thank you.

I'm afraid we have no, I have no data at my fingertips regarding infection rates amongst children and there was no reference at this time to, to to children Interested.

I'd be more than happy, Stefan, to make some calls on that.

Most as you understand that the testing for COVID-19 in Afghanistan is in most countries is conducted by the national authorities.

But I'll do my best to see if I can get some aggregated figures for you.

I see that Babar is racist and maybe he wants to compliment this Babar you're on.

Thank you, Alexander.

Just in terms of the peace process, Afghanistan has seen 40 years of conflict and there is a ray of hope in terms of the recent development.

Some encouraging signs, but for Afghan people to see peace, stability and security, an urgent ceasefire is needed.

As as has been said many times by the Secretary General and by all of us, Afghanistan is a war phone and a war tired country right now.

Remember just recently when IDNC came out with the IDP numbers internally displaced people for last year 2019 1.2 millionaire now added in Afghanistan.

So the rate of displacement is ongoing.

Ongoing.

We see security incidents every then and now we have 3,000,000 Avalan refugees in the neighbouring image of neighbouring countries and far beyond.

Afghans hope that this opportunity is seized by all sides and peace returns as soon as possible.

Thank you very much, Bubba.

OK.

My next question is from Nick.

Hi, good morning to all three questions.

And Bubba, you might want to tune in on one of them.

First of all, Paul, what is what is the basis for thinking that up to 80% of the country's population could be infected?

Could you could you dig into that a little bit?

Second question, you say 30% of the country isn't accessible.

Is there any discussion going on with Taliban which would facilitate access for medical teams to areas of the country that aren't under government control?

And thirdly, and this is the question Baba might have something on, are returns from Iran still going on?

And do you have any information that confirms the accounts we've been hearing about Iranian border guards essentially abusing and, and, and even killing people who are trying to get across the border?

OK, let's start with Paul.

Yeah, thanks Nick.

Good questions.

The, the 80% figure, the, the source of the 80% figure, I would have to double check to be frank, my understanding is that the government projections may be the source of that information, but I would, I would have to double check on that.

The, I'm unaware, personally unaware of direct contact.

Certainly IOM would not be in direct contact with the Taliban to negotiate these, this type of access.

That would, should be something that would be coordinated by the broader UN system.

And once locked down in the security situation assessed to our satisfaction, then we would be able to, to, to, to enter into those areas.

But clearly this is not something that's going to happen tomorrow and it's something that we're as Bob our mentioned something that the international community and the responders, the Afghan people are all all looking forward to, you know is a consolidated peace process that would allow that kind of access.

I can cover off briefly some of the information regarding this incident over the weekend as we have staff obviously in Harat and and staff on the border area.

Now the allegations at this time is that is that a group of Afghan migrants on 2 separate occasions were detained, beaten and thrown into a river by Iranian border guards.

Apparently this group was attempting to cross the Afghan Iranian border in Iraq province irregularly.

Now, it's important to point out Iranian 40s in Tehran and Iraq have denied the arrests of Afghan migrants by Iranian border guards and suggested instead the incident took place inside Afghans.

There is an ongoing investigation by the Afghan authorities and what I can tell you is that at this time, 42 of those survivors who were deported back to Afghanistan have been referred to IOM for assistance.

They are all men and they include four unaccompanied migrant children aged between 15 and 17 years, all residents of Korat province.

Thank you.

Is Barbara, would you like to say something in addition to that?

Yes, yeah.

Go ahead.

As as Paul was saying, you know, our worry is in terms of COVID in Afghanistan and specifically in Kabul.

This was a random, random test that were done a few days ago.

And as Paul was mentioning this, the results are nearly 50% of people that were randomly tested coming out positively.

So our worries for the whole country are there.

And Nick, in terms of Afghan refugee returns, those have been halted because of COVID-19 precautions.

But other ones, other ones who are not refugees who work in in Iran or in Pakistan as as liberal as migrant, they have been returning in, in, in big numbers.

And that's what Paul was trying to mention, that more than 270,000 that have returned.

You know, Afghanistan has a weak health structure, weak economic structure, insecurity is prevalent in the country.

So the worries are there for Afghan people.

In terms of the incident, it is indeed a sad and worrying incident.

As Paul was mentioning, this is being looked into by the both sides bilaterally.

We are following up this with great concern.

Thank you.

Bye.

OK.

So thank you very much to you all.

And let's go to our next speaker with Rupert Colville for HCHR.

And we go to another continent, I think we go to America's.

Rupert, you are.

You're on.

Good morning.

Very much so, yes.

We're focusing on prison conditions in the across the Americas that's both North and South America, but especially South America.

Conditions in many prisons in the Americas region are deeply worrying.

pre-existing structural problems such as chronic overcrowding and unhygienic conditions, coupled with the lack of proper access to healthcare have enabled the rapid spread of COVID-19 in many facilities across the continent.

Thousands of inmates and prison officials have already been affected across North and South America.

In many countries, the increasing fear of contagion and lack of basic services such as the regular provision of food due to the prohibition of family visits.

In many countries, these have triggered riots and protests.

Some of these incidents in detention centres have turned extremely violent.

The latest happened on the 1st of May in Los Lanos Penitentiary in Venezuela, where revolt by prisoners reportedly resulted in 47 inmates losing their lives.

Four days earlier, on the 27th of April, a riot broke out in the Miguel Castro Castro prison in Peru and that left 9 inmates dead.

On the 21st of March, 23 inmates died after security forces intervened to suppress rioting in La Modello prison in Colombia.

Other incidents, including attempts to escape, have been registered in detention centres and prisons in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, Mexico and the US.

The scale and gravity of the incidents mentioned above seem to indicate that in some cases states have not taken appropriate measures to prevent violence in detention facilities and also indicate the state agents may have committed use of forced violations in attempts to regain control of these facilities.

We remind authorities everywhere that the use of force must comply and must strictly comply with the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality and non discrimination.

And the states have the duty to protect inmates physical and mental health and well-being, and that is those obligations are set out in the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners, which are also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules.

We call on states to conduct thorough, prompt, independent and impartial investigations into the circumstances of the deaths and injuries during riots, including any allegation of use of force violations by state agents.

We've also seen with concern how some states have routinely detained people for allegedly violating mandatory quarantines, thereby increasing the risk of infection.

We also have specific concerns in El Salvador, where extremely harsh security measures were recently imposed in prisons, which could amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and could also exacerbate the already precarious hygienic conditions in El Salvador's prisons.

We call on the States to take appropriate measures to prevent further spread of the virus by ensuring sanitary conditions, widespread access to testing and access to necessary healthcare detainees, as well as personal protective equipment and testing for prison personnel.

Authorities should guarantee a minimum level personal contacts with family members and proper access to food and drinkable water, as well as providing regular and transparent information about the impact of the disease on prisoners and on staff.

Conditions in detention centres and prisons and the treatment of detainees should be regularly monitored by independent bodies and prisoners who fall I'll should be placed in non punitive isolation or quarantine in facilities where they can receive adequate, sorry appropriate medical care.

We do welcome measures taken by some states to release those most vulnerable to COVID-19, including people with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women, older people, people living with HIV as well as people with disabilities.

However, broader measures are needed to reduce the extreme levels of overcrowding by releasing other categories of prisoners serving short sentences for non violent crimes, as well as children held in detention and people detained for immigration offences.

In doing so, it's essential that states ensure that those measures do not contribute to impunity for violent crimes.

People convicted of crimes recognised under international law after a fair and public trial by an independent and impartial tribunal should be considered for temporary release from custody only under exceptional circumstances.

In the context of the pandemic, it's urgent to reduce the use of pretrial detention measures that should always be exceptional but has been chronically overused in the Americas.

And the Interagency Standing Committee Interim Guidance on COVID-19 and Persons Deprived of Their Liberty offers practical suggestions to states wishing to implement measures to reduce overcrowding in places of detention.

People detained arbitrarily without sufficient legal basis or for crimes that are incompatible with international law, as well as all those incarcerated for extra exercising their human rights, including expression and dissenting opinion, should also be released.

And authorities should ensure that people who have been released receive proper health care.

Apologies for the extreme length of that, but it's an important message and it's covering a lot of situations in a lot of different countries.

Thank you, Rupert.

Yes, indeed.

It was really comprehensive.

Thanks for that.

And I'm sure that the journalists will appreciate to get the notes by e-mail, which I'm sure you will send also.

So I have a few question already lined up.

Let's start with Katrina.

Yes, good morning, Robert.

Thank you, Alessandra, for reminding to send the notes, because it's to follow, because it's a long task and, and in order not to make you repeat, it would have been much easier if we could have read it at the same time.

But I would like just to ask you if you have some figures about the children that are detained.

And my other question is about the prisons in North America.

Do you have details, particularly prisons that are closed from the border between United States of America and Mexico?

Thank you, Rupert.

Thank you, Catherine.

Rupert.

Yeah, Catherine.

Now we would have sent it to you, but it's still being worked on as this briefing started, which is in fact why we moved down the order.

So.

Apologies for that, but it was really a complex.

No worries, It was worth waiting.

Thank you, Rupert.

In terms of children now, I don't have any numbers.

It's very hard to actually get precise numbers on.

And of course prison populations are constantly in flux, you know, new people coming in and people being released and so on and so forth.

So it's very, very hard to get figures even in one or two countries, let alone across across 2 continents like this.

But you know, there are children who children being under the UN definition being under 18 years of age who are in detention in, in various countries, including for immigration detention.

And, and obviously that is 1 area we feel people could certainly be released relatively easily.

United States, United States has a huge prison population.

It's, I think it's around 2.3 million people in all.

There have been a lot of cases and these have been well publicised within the United States, thousands of cases of infections across various prisons across the country.

So you know, it's a major concern and it's been a major concern for several weeks.

And in individual states in the US, you've had a lot of movement on that issue, for example in New York, in Chicago and elsewhere where the problem has been particularly problematic.

Again, in the US, of course, you have the issue of immigration detention with large numbers of people in immigration detention.

We're concerned that maybe there's not enough testing being going on in those Immigration and Customs Enforcement centres.

So that's some of the issues there.

That said, you know, a lot of people have been released, other types of people we've mentioned today.

Again, I don't have precise figures, but it looks like it's in the 10s of thousands of people have been released across the country.

Katrina yes, just to ask Rupert to send us as much, as detailed, as much detailed as possible into notes, written notes.

Yeah, I think, I think went through it will be much easier it was with figures of the States and and things like that.

That would be very nice of you if you could send that in your notes.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's a bit tricky, but yeah, we'll, we'll see what we can do, but we might have to give you links to other sources which we can't verify ourselves.

Thank you, Rupert.

The next question is from Gabriella.

Thank you very much.

Hi, Rupert, nice to see you.

And yes, if you can send the links, I will appreciate that.

And you were talking about military, militaries detaining people because of the quarantine.

Could you mention in which countries?

And then it's a regional issue.

I mean, it's, it's all over Latin America.

So do you think that this is just, I mean, it's a chronic situation?

Do you think that is more obvious because of the pandemic and the pandemic?

But it's really a chronic situation with the detained people in in Latin America.

So and then I had another.

Well, yeah, it's it's it's all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gabriela Rupert.

Yeah, dealing with the last question first.

Yes, it's, it's an absolutely chronic situation.

And this is because the overcrowding in, in some of the countries was, was massive.

I mean, you're talking about in some places like 500% over the, over the limits of what the crowding should be in prisons.

So of course when you get something like COVID-19 entering those kind of facilities, it's absolutely disastrous.

And as you may recall, the **** Commissioner put out a press release six weeks ago now, 41 days ago on the 25th of March, where at that point it was a little bit more theoretical, but whether the risk of this type of spreading of, of COVID-19 in prisons was very apparent.

And she laid out the, the main issues and, and many of the calls we've said today are, were, were calls she already made at that point on the on the 25th of March.

So, you know, states have had time to contemplate this and we're concerned in, in some countries maybe not enough thought and not enough work was done to to, to try and ease the situation, in particular to ease the overcrowding.

And of course the other issue is in, in many countries inmates to, you know, are not provided with sufficient food and healthcare and so on.

And in some countries, it's families provide the food.

So if the families, they're not allowed to visit because of the risk of bringing, bringing in COVID-19 into the prison by our family members, then obviously you have to put alternative measures in place so people can get sufficient food.

So yes, chronic issues across many, many countries.

In terms of the overcrowding, well, it's variable, but it's, as I said, it's, it's, you know, I, I don't really know where to start.

I mean, there are many of the countries in Latin America you have serious overcrowding.

I mean really serious overcrowding.

So, but I, you know, I hesitate to pick on one or another because it's a problem across the continent.

Thank you, Rupert.

The next question is from Nick.

Great.

Thanks.

Hi, Rupert.

Could you just, I might be clear that when we're talking about 46 deaths in Venezuela and 23 in Colombia, these are deaths as a result of action specifically taken by security guards.

So not because there were fires and people suffocated, it was actually excessive use of force specifically by the security.

Well, no, I think that's why you need investigations to find out exactly, exactly how people died and what, what caused them to die.

In Venezuela, we understand the number of deaths has now gone up to 47 from from 46, which is what was being reported yesterday.

So yes, This is why we we call for for investigations.

So because sometimes, you know, prisoners, it's the action of prisoners that results in the death of other prisoners.

In some cases, it may be the actions of prison authorities.

And then, you know, as part of those investigations, you need to look into the reasons why the riots took place in the 1st place, You know, where the measures that could have been, could have been put in place that would have meant less tension, less fear and less anger among the prisoners leading to the riots.

So This is why, you know, any, any incident of this type when people lose their lives, when they're in the, in the under the authority of the states, in the hand of the state have to be properly investigated impartially and so on.

And we need to learn from that.

And if there's been violations committed by by prison authorities or the police or the army or whoever, then obviously that should be dealt with properly.

Thank you, Rupert.

I've got Jamil, Lisa and Paula asking for the questions.

For questions.

And then I'll go to Christian.

Jamil.

Jamil, just one second.

You're being a mute.

Here you are on Jamil.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Good morning, Rupert.

Good morning, Alessandra.

You mentioned Brazil.

So I have to ask a question.

Sir, what is the?

Situation in Brazil in terms of COVID and the prisons, you mentioned some cases in Colombia, in Venezuela.

Could you be more?

Specific regarding Brazil as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jamil Rupert.

I was pretty sure I had something on on Brazil, but I can't find it.

I have a lot of paper here.

Yeah, 1 little thing which is actually relatively positive.

Jamil, I don't know if you want anything positive, but in Brazil the judiciary has actually taken an active role in this issue and there was a recommendation of the National Judicial Council that has led to the release of some 15,000 vulnerable, juvenile and less serious offenders.

That includes both people who were sentenced and are those who are in pre trial detention.

That said, I understand the government has actually been resisting those releases publicly.

So there's been a tension between the government on the one hand and the judicial, National Judicial Council on the other hand.

So I think that's basically what I have on Brazil.

Sorry, the other countries you wanted, I mean, there are so many issues in so many countries.

It's a little bit hard to in Colombia.

I think you mentioned again, as I said earlier, chronic overcrowding in Colombia, total prison population I believe exceeds 120,000 people.

And the percentage of overcrowding in prison is believed to be around 55% and even higher, more than more than twice that in in transitory detention centres.

So, you know, as you know, we have a big office in Colombia.

So they are in in communication with the government on this issue.

And there have been some, some releases, but I don't believe, yeah.

Maybe.

There's been some movements towards the releases, but not so many released so far.

Yeah and before I I will give the floor to Lisa, but why Lisa has been a muted Rupert just Gabriella is saying that maybe you have forgotten to tell her what kind of in which countries military forces held prison people that are not following quarantine.

I'm not sure Gabriella, we'd have to look into that.

I don't have that specific focus on on military in in preparing this, this material.

I don't.

I don't actually have that information, but we can see if we have it.

OK.

Thank you very much.

So Lisa is your turn.

Thank you.

Morning, Rupert.

I'm unmuted.

OK.

Rupert, you mentioned that some countries were actually releasing prisoners.

If you could name some of those countries that are doing that.

And also what I would like to know is which prisoners, not all of them can be released, but which ones do you think should should be released?

And I'm thinking specifically in 11 instance of the situation in El Salvador where I'm kind of horrified about all so many women who when they miscarry are considered having been that they've murdered their children, you know, had abortions.

And so they get thrown into these prisons and left to rot.

So if you could talk about that, yeah, that that would be it.

And Alessandra, please not, not now.

I have a question from a Rixie later on when you have a moment to let me have a word at the end, because Christian has been very patient and waiting for one hour to be sure.

Sure.

That's, that's fine.

Rupert answering you, then I have Paul and then we will.

Yeah.

Thank you, Rupert.

Yeah.

I mean, Lisa, we, we believe women, you know clearly in El Salvador and we've been very clear on the public record on that, that and not just in Salvador and some other countries that women who've been gaoled for issues relating to sexual reproductive health should not have been gaoled in the 1st place and should be released anyhow.

And obviously doubly so in these circumstances.

In terms of releases, again, I don't have really full overview, but I mean a number of countries have.

Chile, for example, has adopted a law that commutes the sentences of various categories of pharmacal prisoners, women of small children, pregnant women, older prisoners, and that's led to the release of some 1600 in all.

Interestingly, some other prisoners actually.

Turned down the release, the offer of release, because they had nowhere to go.

So that that is an issue too.

It's not simply a question of opening a door and letting somebody walk out.

You have to make sure they have somewhere to go and somebody can take care of them.

Because otherwise, you know, you simply transfer the problem from the prison to to the outside world.

In Peru, the executive has dropped adopted 3 presidential degrees with pardons or computed sentences for a number of categories of people's.

For example, people in prisons are not paying halimony, vulnerable prisons, prisoners, including those as underlying health conditions and juvenile offenders.

So I think we'd applaud that.

Brazil, I mentioned earlier, Ecuador, the government's said it will introduce initiative to create some sentences of certain categories of prisoners, and the judiciary's approved a resolution encouraging judges to review their decision.

In Bolivia, the government's adopted to create pardoning detainees over 58.

Those are terminal illness, pregnant or nursing women or people who have children under six years of age in their care.

And that was ratified by Congress on the 30th of April.

The bill, quite rightly, in our view, excludes those prosecuted for terrorism.

More concerning, it also excludes those prosecuted for sedition, which is a term that's used against political opponents in some cases.

But we're expecting, I think around 5000 people could benefit from from what's happening in Bolivia.

So there are some positive steps being taken, partial in some cases, not reaching fulfilment in other cases.

And as I said, we're, we're, you know, in the statement we've sent, I hope we've sent you already or we'll be sending you shortly.

You'll see the, the kind of categories that we think should be released.

We also, and I think it is important that certain categories of prisoner should not be released unless the very exceptional circumstances, they should be protected from COVID-19.

But we're talking about the serious prisoners of people guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other very serious values.

Thank you very much.

Our last question is from Paula.

Yeah, hi, good morning.

Yeah.

Do you hear me?

Yes, Yeah, hi.

So actually my question is at 1 stage, Rupert, you mentioned that there was up to 500% overcrowding of prisons.

I was wondering where that is that you have that 500% overcrowding and then also as you started to hint at the end just now the release and the issue of COVID infected prisoners.

Do you have any examples of, you know, positive examples potentially of countries where the prisoners are being quarantined after being released?

And yeah, and any messages that you may have to countries in general regarding quarantining those prisoners that that are being released with COVID?

Thank you, Rupert.

The answer to the last question, no I don't have any examples.

I hope there are some but I don't I don't have them.

We could try and try and find out for you if we can find some examples there.

In terms I can't find where I saw, I think it was a specific prison.

I think it was actually one of the prisons where the riots had taken place was the 500%, but I'd need to find that information somewhere.

But I mean, 200 or 300% overcapacity is, is pretty common.

And of course it's been exacerbated by those countries that have arrested large numbers of people for quarantine violations.

So in Peru, for example, the short term detention, not not long term, but more than 50,000 people.

So that led to overcrowding in, in prison cells in, in various police stations and so on and possibly contributed to the fact that the the police force in Peru has a **** rate of infection.

So again, I don't, I don't have, I have so much information here and yet it's hard to find some of the specific apologies for that.

But I think, you know, if you look country by country, you will find these kind of figures for some prisons.

We'll see if we can take out some specifics for you.

In terms of general messages in.

Terms of general messages, I mean, it's a chronic problem as we said at the beginning across the continent, overcrowding and it's in the circumstances it could be absolutely deadly.

Thank you.

OK.

I see Antonio has raises and is for Rupert, I believe.

But please brief because Christian is waiting.

Antonio, you have one second, one minute.

Go ahead.

One minute.

I will be very brief.

Good morning, Alessandra and Rupert.

Just to know if you have some information about outbreaks of COVID in, in these prisons in in Latin America especially and if some of the prisons where the riots have happened have these outbreaks?

Thank you.

Thank you, Rupert.

And maybe Christian would have also something.

Go ahead, Rupert.

Yes, but again, the figures are not necessarily very reliable and not necessarily up to date either.

So I I hesitate to give them because I'm not sure they're, I'm not sure they'll be.

I would say if you look across both continents, as we said earlier on, you're talking thousands and you're also talking a lot of prison staff in the United States alone.

There are there are many thousands of of of infections in prisons, but also obviously across South America there are also many cases, but I don't have precise figures and those figures we do have I'm not not too sure would stand up to close close scrutiny and whether they're up to date or.

Thank you very much, Rupert for this extensive briefing.

I will now go to Christian who has a general update on the on the pandemic and other announcements.

Christian, thanks for your patience.

You are on.

Thank you all very much.

And since we've been monopolising the briefings for so many weeks and months, I think it's OK for to step back for once.

Thank.

You it was a little bit the idea to give you the final stage so that all questions can be asked.

Maybe to start to add on what Rupert just said, there's a briefing the the regular weekly update of our Pan American Health Organisation, the WTO office in the Americas today.

They try to do it every Tuesday, 11:00 Wednesday, Washington Times, or that would be 17105 o'clock Geneva time.

That's today.

We sent out the announcement yesterday.

If anybody needs it again, please let us know.

So that might be a good point to, to connect to what Rupert has been saying on a, on another remark, you may have seen the news or the papers describing a potential case of COVID-19 in France in December already that's been out in the news.

Interestingly, that also joined another report that I've seen recently about an earlier case in California, if I'm right, but about the one in France.

So this paper reports on samples collected on 27 December that were positive for COVID-19, which is of course earlier in the first reported cases in France in January.

Christian, I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Is there anybody speaking close to you?

We hear female voice.

It is heard in the in the line.

I'm sorry.

If it's possible, I can only move with the laptop unfortunately, but that means rearranging set up.

OK, no, I don't hear it anymore.

But now we don't have it.

OK.

So it may happen again.

So these are of course interesting findings that but they help to better understand the potential virus circulation of the COVID-19.

The, the, it's not surprising.

That's important because the, given the earliest cases of COVID-19 had symptoms onset already in early December.

So it's possible that some of the infected people travelled from Wuhan to other countries at that time.

It's also possible that more early cases to be found as countries retest samples.

So it's the, it's the old story.

The deeper you look, the more you will find.

Whether these are cases from December or January, then we'll we'll see.

But it will give us of course, more insight than a more complete picture.

Should I?

I'll just continue with the, with the other updates, right, Because we're short of time now.

So of course now it's today is the International Day for the midwife, very importantly and very timely, of course.

And if we get finished soon, within the next 19 minutes today, then you'll go right on time to clap for the midwives at noon today as a, as a symbol of showing support for the midwives.

It's also hand hygiene day, very fittingly at the same day.

So very timely and matching for, for, for the COVID days.

Various events are ongoing all over the world.

Some updates are on the websites, of course.

And finally, maybe a technical update on the World Health Assembly because that's been, that's been a big question recently.

So the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board meeting, the 73rd Assembly and the 147th Executive Board will take place virtually using video conferencing technology.

It will be a much shorter version.

So the World Health Assembly 73 will open on 18 May and continue until 19 May, so only two days.

Please note that this is an initial plan if deemed necessary could be longer.

So that depends on the sessions then.

But for now it's two days only.

The Executive Board meeting 147 will does open on 22 May for one day only.

So it's proposed right now and that's still to be finally decided that these meetings focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, and the items that are essential for governance, business of continuity.

More specifically, in addition to the to the items, the Assembly will consider the item on the address by Doctor Tedros, Director General, and that this will focus on the COVID-19 response.

And another item will be executive for the elections.

The executive for the elections are important because there are 34 members and every year that they are elected for a three-year term and every year a third of them gets re elected.

So this this is important for continuation.

Steering committee will meet tomorrow again to finalise this plan.

So we will know more definite by the end of tomorrow than latest for Friday.

Maybe another word on Friday.

We'll try to have a special briefing again ahead of this briefing, 9:45.

I'm hoping to get someone on the zoonotic jump from the virus or back to the animal Kingdom, the origin of the virus.

So that should be interesting.

We're trying to work on that for Friday morning 9:45.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much and thank you also for this briefings with experts that the journalists have been asking for, as you know.

So thanks for doing that.

I will.

I have a few questions lined up already.

So I will start with Jamil.

Christian, hope all fun with you.

Good.

Can you?

Hear me.

Go ahead.

Yeah, Good.

Go ahead, Jamil, about the increasing number of cases in Brazil, having reached, for example, in the last 15 days one of the four biggest number of cases in the world.

How do you?

See the situation.

Basically, in a country with 200 million people and increasing number.

Of cases what?

What else could Brazil do?

Thank you.

Christian.

So, yeah, thank you.

So I'm just looking at the figures right now on the American continent, Brazil is now the second highest ranking.

According to the CITRIP from last night, we're close to 92,000 confirmed cases and associated deaths, 6329 of course, the, the various measures.

So it's difficult to give one blanket opinion now because you have to, to see the particular scenario and the cities will be different than the countryside.

That's important.

But in general, the the the best recommendations are a comprehensive package of measures in any country and that starts with testing and testing, testing that whole story remains the same, which is finding every suspect case, testing them ideally it's been of course confirmed, isolating and treating them.

That is giving you a much more complete picture of the the setup of the scenario.

This helps treating the people infected and this helps keeping the people aware of what the scenario in the country is.

If other measures would need to be implemented, referring to lockdown, of course, that is something which has to be seen on the political level when looking at the picture in the country.

It could be individual scenarios, it could be suspending individual larger events.

That would really depend on the findings.

That is why the scientific approach should be the first step.

Looking at what is the picture, we have to understand it and then take your steps and consequences from there.

Thank you Christian.

Next question is Gabriela.

I thank you.

Hi, nice to see you Christian 11 practical question and then a question.

So I'm going to attend Paho's briefing, but should I say we have to send a written questions.

So do I have to send it to you or I send it directly to them?

That is one question.

And then another question is that in the Netherlands is scientists created antibody that defeats coronavirus in the laboratory, this known as antibody 47 D 11.

I mean this is very technical, I don't understand anything but, but does this give you any hope these findings?

So thank you for Fundy Andy Paho, please follow what the PAHO update sends for.

No, don't send the questions to us.

It doesn't help us because we're not dealing with briefing.

They're dealing dealing with it from from Washington.

So please follow the steps there and on the findings, while I'm not now having any details by our technicians on the on, on that specific finding, every finding, every new scientific development gives us a new hint and gives us a clearer picture.

And of course, everything has to be checked, has to be tested and has to be validated.

And once we can do this, whether it's now as you said, an antibody or whether it's a new promising vaccine or therabiotics or diagnostic, it's always the same.

It needs to be checked and validated and thus may help us much further in the in the fight against survivors.

But I think right now on the pure announcement, it's too early to give a a clear picture.

Thank you, Christian.

Next question is from John Zaracosis.

Yes.

Good evening, Christian.

Can you hear?

Me, I hear you.

Well, yes, yes.

Firstly, with the World Health Assembly, will that be as every year webcast including the technical meetings for us to follow?

And I have a a second question with, with regards to samples of the coronavirus, how many WHR Member States have sent samples either to headquarters or to WHO reference laboratories for examination?

Because there are reports that not many countries have done that.

So thank you, John.

Under your question of the Member States and the samples, I will have to check back.

I don't have the answer for you there on the World Health Assembly.

Thank you for for giving you a follow up there.

You all the proceedings and all the meetings will be will be webcast.

Indeed not long for two days only or three depending how long it goes, but it's planned for two days.

And you also of course don't have to accredit get the accreditation because it's it will be all online and web casts and no specific setup necessary there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jamie.

Hi, thanks.

Thanks, Christian.

Just I'm wondering a couple of things about the findings that you have, the French findings.

Would you encourage other people to look into other countries to also look into similar records to try to, to find out?

And in particular, I'm thinking about China, if I recall correctly, they reported the first case to WHO on December 31st.

So does this raise any concerns that maybe there may have been cases in China earlier as well and that you didn't get wind of them?

And could you, are you asking the Beijing government to to look into it further?

Why is let me start in a reverse order there?

So of course, if we have cases reported on 31 December, that means there were cases earlier and that's already been said obviously.

So symptom onset in in China most likely for most patients was in early December.

But the way this this happens all across the world when you have when when the medical staff or even the the pathologists find cases of unspecified pneumonia or suspicious thefts.

They very often put samples where they can on hold until to see whether later on.

There's another reason why this needs to be tested and checked again.

And this is very often how older cases which were not clearly.

Labelled or identified beforehand, then get into hindsight, retested, rechecked and identified.

So this gives us a, a big a whole new picture on everything.

And yes, of course, it would be great if if all countries who have unspecified cases of pneumonia in the recent months and even in December and maybe even in November would check them against COVID-19.

And many of them are doing this anyway, which is exactly the point why it's giving us a new, a new and clearer picture.

So, So yes, that's important.

And that's really in some way exciting news, because this will give us a different picture, maybe.

Jamie, you, you're still on.

Did I follow up?

Can I follow?

Up.

Yeah, well, there are thousands of questions, but go ahead quickly, please.

And I'll just wrap up the words.

Go ahead.

OK, Christian, I just wanted to make sure I understand what WHO considers to be the significance of this these findings in France like what is the if you had to just summarise the significance of this these findings.

So the findings like is now in France.

So in any similar scenario, help to better understand the potential virus circulation of COVID-19.

The it's not surprising given the earliest cases of COVID-19 had symptoms onset already in early December.

So it's possible that some of these infected people travelled from Wuhan to other countries at that time.

It's also possible that more early cases to be found as countries retest samples from patients who were sick in December, January of unspecified pneumonia or other reasons.

Thank you, Christian.

I have just to do a little bit of housekeeping.

I've got Emma Christian Yan.

Two questions from Bloomberg are going to.

There are two correspondents.

I don't know if it's the same question, and I will stop there afterwards because I haven't forgotten that Lisa still has a question for Marxy.

So I'd like everybody to try and be brief, please.

Emma, you have the floor.

Yes, Good morning, everyone.

Back to the origins of the virus, please.

So The Who has previously said that the virus is probably of animal origin and one hypothesis is that it was of animal origin but also was from inside a Wuhan lab and somehow escaped.

So my question is on those two Chinese government laboratories in Wuhan, I understand that WHO officials have not yet yet accessed them as part of the inquiry.

Is that because you were refused access?

Or just because you haven't asked for it yet?

And will you be efforting such access in the future?

Thank you.

So the I'm hearing an icon now.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's a vehicle.

Let me try again.

Yeah, now it's fun that.

Sounds much better.

So the the origin and also the Wuhan lab proceedings or the question has been raised a lot of times and also yesterday again at the regular press briefing.

So that's also a great source to look it up.

The also the question of when and how there might be another mission was discussed.

So I'm also not adding too much there in general.

It's will be really, really important.

That's also reiterated many times to look into the origin of the of the virus because we need to understand where and how the intermediate host was from the bats, which seemed to be which we're pretty sure in terms of coronaviruses, the the the original host, which was the intermediary to transmit it from the bats to the human world.

That's important that we need to understand that may need further missions or mission in singular.

So we're all looking forward to this.

But again, I'm I'm I don't have too much to add on what was said the recent days and also specifically yesterday.

Thank you, Christian.

Christian, my hello, my question.

Was on the.

World Health Assembly I.

Wasn't quite sure.

Is this fixed now for two days or did you say this is a suggestion?

And that might.

Change and then who takes the decision it does.

Change.

Yeah, thanks.

Because I know I was not maybe clear.

So it is a 2 day World Health Assembly 73, but if you recall other World Health Assemblies, there was always the question on the last 1-2 days whether they may need to go a day longer or not.

So that is always an option in case deliberations on a certain topic may make it necessary to extend.

But that's just again, that's always an option.

The World Health Assembly 73 is now scheduled provisionally for 1819 May.

Thank you, Jan.

Yes.

Hello Christian.

I have a question or two questions on the WHA and Taiwan.

I was wondering has The Who Secretariat received an official request by Taiwan to participate in the WHA?

And secondly, will there be an official vote by Member States on the participation in the run up to The Who or the first day of the WHWHA, Sorry.

And what's the procedure?

So thank you, Jan.

So to my knowledge, there was a letter or an e-mail received.

But again, this was also clarified a lot yesterday.

It's it's of course a political question where the staff of the World Health Organisation, the World Health Organisation as Secretariat have absolutely no say.

And that's what you're indicating, of course, when you're hinting at the Member States.

So it's up to the member states.

Typically in such a like in the previous World Health Assemblies, there's a set up where one party speaks for the party in question, meaning in this case for Taiwan, the other speaks against, and then the normally 2 supporting mentions or or voices statements and that's it.

Because otherwise you lose your whole assembly days of weeks and discussing one item.

Whether it will be done this time is, I don't know.

Because of the two days only, I'm not sure this will be brought up again.

The steering committee is will be finalising plans tomorrow.

Thank you.

Bloomberg is now a one person only who's on the line.

Hi, it's Karine Gretler from Bloomberg.

Thank you for taking my question.

What do you make of the report about blood clots being a source of complications following a COVID-19 infection?

Could.

Undiagnosed or untreated clots be a driver of the reactivation phenomenon.

Yeah, thank you, Corinne.

We've seen your report from this morning and so actually really interesting.

But we don't have any feedback from the from the scientists yet what that would mean, what, what, what the significance of of such a finding is.

We also don't have any what any any scientific insight into this year, but it will be locked into.

Thank you very much, Christian.

OK, so I'm sorry, John.

I'm sorry Gabriella, I see there are follow-ups, but we have to close very soon.

I would like to thank Christian very much and if there is time, if Christian still has time afterwards, I'll give the correspondent the possibility to do a follow up.

But there is AI would like now to ask Marixi to get on the line.

Marixi, are you there?

Just one second.

She's going to be muted if she's on the line.

I can you hear me?

You are there.

Yes, we can.

OK.

So thank you for being here.

Lisa wanted to ask you a question.

Lisa Schlein.

Lisa can.

Can Lisa be unmuted?

Yeah.

Hi.

Hello.

Yeah.

Yes, Alexander, Thank you for remembering and thank you for getting on the line, Marixi.

But it's OK.

I don't need to ask the question.

Oh, OK, great.

Marixi, is there anything you want to add to what has been said before?

We've spoken about children a lot.

I can't hear you.

Sorry.

No.

OK.

It's OK, OK, fine.

So Christian, do you have 5 more minutes?

I've got a few follow-ups for you here.

We can try, but battery on my laptop is literally on 5% so if we're if I suddenly disappear it may not be due to the question but due to power.

Shortage, it's good to to say this because we've had issues in the past.

So in this case I go, I go to Byram first because he didn't speak yet.

Byram, you have a chance for.

Thank you so much percent question.

Thank you so much, Christine.

On January 31, you said there is a huge reason to keep official borders crossing open to avoid people entering irregularly from China, which means you urge countries to keep open their borders to China.

So if we change time now, if you reverse time, would you make the same call or I do regret it for that call?

Thank you.

Thank you, Byram.

Byram, as you see the our travel and trade restrictions remain more or less the same still until today.

The emergency committee just last Friday or the statement of the emergency committee which was issued last Friday, the meeting was on Thursday also reiterate that the travel and trade restrictions policy and this the the statement there.

So what we would like to reiterate, what would have been way more effective, and we have been saying this many, many times even during that time before and after, is the the aggressive testing and tracing of suspected cases and contacts.

With this you would get a much clearer picture, you could treat patients and you would know what the situation is.

So that is the the way preferred scenario.

Of course individually politicians will need to make their own risk assessment, but from a from a WHO side, these are the recommendations.

As you heard from WFP before, part of the problems are getting need aid to the people on the ground and part of this is due to travel restrictions which are ongoing and which make it difficult to deliver aid.

So this is just one of the negative side effects over.

Thank you.

Katherine, you haven't asked a question to Christian Swerk.

Go to you.

Thank you so much.

I have a very scientific question and I'm not sure that Christian is able to to answer to it.

That is regarding the, the, the, the, the PC scans of the lungs.

When, when they do scans of the lungs, they see a certain, certain things that show that people are touched by COVID-19.

And I would like to know if you know that it means that they have COVID-19 of the, or they had COVID-19, they've been affected by it.

I don't know if you answered this question and I would like to ask again, not only for acne but for for Geneva Press, that we really would like to have scientists, scientific experts, people that are talking about the virus.

You have the very briefing on media, but we need to have experts to talk.

We try to be short, I think.

I think he knows and he's going to do more expert meetings and we'll have one on Friday.

Christian, please quickly.

Otherwise, the other two persons will not have their follow up.

So the what what shows in the lungs is that is the damage of the lungs.

This is of course something which is ongoing when you are affected, but this will also continue after you've been infected.

Damage, a long term effects of the damage to lungs and whatever other bodies is yet to be determined.

Of course the studies are not yet there because it's only is ongoing since a couple of months.

So again, this is a yes and no to your answer.

Thank you.

2 brief follow-ups and then we close to Gabriella and John.

Gabriella, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Alessandra, a follow up on John's question.

Do you hear me?

Yes.

Yeah, follow up on John's question.

I remember that Taiwan was a observer in in a past assemblies.

So due to the emergency right now, would you encourage Member States to accept Taiwan as an observer state?

This is a political question which which is not up to me to answer.

The the technical cooperation with Taiwan authorities is ongoing.

They're locked into the IHR system.

They have their IHR focal point.

We are in touch with them.

So from the technical side, there's absolutely no inhibition.

The rest is political, which is not up to the secretariat.

Thank you, John.

Last question.

Yes, I'll be very brief.

Christian, follow up to your answer earlier to a colleague on China.

Last week, the head of The Who in office, Doctor Galao, made on the record comments that China had yet to invite The Who to participate in their investigation on the origins of COVID-19.

Has that been resolved?

Has WHO been invited since Doctor Galao's comments last week or not?

To my knowledge, I've not seen anything further.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Christian.

Thank you to everybody.

Before I leave you, I have just two short announcement to make.

One is that the press conference that you're going to have this afternoon at 3:00 PM on our platform, whose title is COVID-19, the digital future is here, a conversation with ITU Secretary General Hulin Zhao.

In times of digital transformation, we'll see 4 speakers, not 3.

So obviously Hulin Zhao, ITU Secretary General during Bob Dan Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, Doctor Reinhardt Schaal, Deputy Director, ITU Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau.

And we have now in in a fourth speaker which has been added was Mario Manievich, Director of the ITU Radio Communication Bureau.

And that is at 3:00 PM today on our platform.

And I would just like to leave you with the any information that we're expecting to have another policy brief of the Secretary General to be launched probably tomorrow on, on the effect of COVID-19 on persons with disabilities.

And that's all I wanted to tell you.

So thank you very much to everybody and have a nice afternoon.

Thank you.