The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 08 May 2020
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2:01:28
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MP4
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1.1 GB
Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNHCR , WHO , UNOG , WFP , WIPO , WMO
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 08 May 2020
COVID-19: Impact on the global weather observing system
Clare Nullis, for World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said WMO was concerned about the increasing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quantity and quality of weather observations and forecasts, as well as atmospheric and climate monitoring. Meteorological measurements taken from aircraft had plummeted by an average 75 to 80 per cent compared to normal, with very large regional variations; in the southern hemisphere, the loss was closer to 90 per cent. Large parts of the observing system, for instance its satellite components and many ground-based observing networks, were either partly or fully automated. But if the pandemic was prolonged, then missing repair, maintenance and supply work, and missing redeployments would become of increasing concern. Surface-based weather observations were in decline, especially in Africa and parts of Central and South America where many stations were manual rather than automatic and were so badly affected by the current lockdowns and mandatory teleworking policies.
A press release is available here.
Responding to questions, Ms. Nullis said the global observing system was as strong as its weakest link. Weather forecast was based on numerical weather predictions, which required a constant supply of observations from around the world.
COVID-19: Conflict and heavy floods force tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in Somalia
Charley Yaxley, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said heavy flooding, conflict, a crippled economy, impending desert locust swarms and the exponential spread of COVID-19 were threatening the safety and welfare of Somalia’s 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs). UNHCR feared these multiple, compounding emergencies would lead to devastating consequences unless there was a strong and coordinated response from the international community, national and local Somali authorities and humanitarian actors to meet the massive humanitarian needs. Since the start of this year, more than 220,000 Somalis had become internally displaced, including 137,000 due to conflict. Natural and climate-related disasters including drought and resulting lack of livelihoods and floods were additional complex and interlinked drivers of displacement. UNHCR believed the humanitarian situation would worsen as COVID-19 further spread. Most of the 2.6 million IDPs in Somalia lived in overcrowded settlements and many, especially those newly displaced, lived in makeshift shelters made of plastic bags, cardboards and sticks. Physical and social distancing was close to impossible, and there was scarcely enough clean water for drinking, let alone hand-washing. Conditions were ripe for widespread viral transmission.
A full briefing note is available here.
COVID-19: Global appeal to address and counter COVID-19-related hate speech
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that today, the Secretary-General had made an appeal to address and counter COVID-19 related hate speech. He said that the pandemic continued to “unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering”; he called for an all-out effort to end hate speech globally, as it was important to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate”.
Full statement available here.
Other COVID-19 related updates
Responding to questions, Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that scientific findings were pointing at the virus originating in and around Wuhan; there was no evidence suggesting that the virus had originated outside China. Looking at the origin of the virus would be of utmost importance to prevent additional waves of infection, and WHO would be happy to participate in investigations.
Replying to a journalist’s question, Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said WFP had set up six regional hubs that served the needs of humanitarian workers, providing supplies and equipment. WFP also had dedicated medical facilities on the ground, including two air ambulances and two ground ambulances. What is more, hubs were being established in Accra and Addis Ababa. They should be up and running by mid-May.
Syria – warning on escalating violence/killings across the country
Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, had expressed serious concerns today, Friday, about continuing human rights violations and abuses and a sharp rise in killings of civilians across Syria, saying “the deteriorating situation is a ticking time-bomb that must not be ignored.” “We are receiving more reports every day of targeted killings and bombings from one end of the country to the other, with many such attacks taking place in populated areas. Various parties to the conflict in Syria, including ISIL, appear to view the global focus on the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to regroup and inflict violence on the population,” Bachelet said. In April, OHCHR had documented at least 35 civilian deaths due to attacks involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs), compared to seven the previous month.
A full new release can be found here.
Answering questions, Mr. Colville noted that there was a re-emergence of ISIL which had claimed responsibility for killings in the past days. ISIL was believed to have sleeper cells in various parts of the country. While there were allegations that Government forces were carrying out targeted assassinations, it was not always clear who was responsible for these crimes. In Idlib, the ceasefire seemed to be holding reasonably well, in general, even though there had been intermittent ground-based clashes.
Migrants in the Mediterranean Sea
Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said OHCHR was deeply concerned about recent reports of failure to assist and coordinated pushbacks of migrant boats in the central Mediterranean, which continued to be one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. Reports that Maltese authorities had requested commercial ships to push boats with migrants in distress back to the high seas were of particular concern. OHCHR was also concerned that humanitarian search and rescue vessels, which usually patrol the central Mediterranean area, were being prevented from supporting migrants in distress, at a time when the numbers attempting to make the perilous journey from Libya to Europe has increased sharply. Following the immobilization of the humanitarian rescue ships Alan Kurdi and Aita Mari, there were currently no active humanitarian search and rescue vessels in the central Mediterranean. It had also been alleged that administrative regulations and measures were being used to impede the work of humanitarian NGOs. OHCHR was calling for restrictions on the work of these rescuers to be lifted immediately. Such measures were clearly putting lives at risk.
Charley Yaxley, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said UNHCR was echoing the calls by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. No refugee or migrant should be returned to Libya after being rescued at sea. It was important to note the use of arbitrary detention of migrants and refugees was only one problematic aspect of the situation in Libya. Even if this issue was fixed tomorrow, the conditions in Libya still would not allow for a return of refugee and migrants. Libya could not be considered to have a safe port for disembarkation, for instance. States should not, therefore, delay or hesitate to respond to stress call and had to uphold their obligations under international law. Further, humanitarian efforts should be neither criminalized nor penalized.
Surging violence uproots thousands of people in eastern Congo
Charley Yaxley, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said UNHCR remained alarmed at an ongoing surge in violent attacks on local populations in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where more than 200,000 people had been forced to flee their homes in just two months. UNHCR also remained concerned at the shrinking space for humanitarian work as attacks continued to hamper its ability to reach those in dire need of assistance. UNHCR was calling on all sides involved in the conflict to respect civilian lives and humanitarian work. In Ituri province, UNHCR and its partners had recorded more than 3,000 serious human rights violations in Djugu Territory in the last 60 days, arising from almost 50 attacks against the local population on average every day. Displaced persons had reported acts of extreme violence with at least 274 civilians killed with weapons such as machetes. More than 140 women had been raped and almost 8,000 houses set on fire. Consistent with earlier patterns, the vast majority of those displaced were women and children, many of whom were now living under crowded circumstances with host families.
A full briefing note is available here.
40th anniversary of the declaration of the eradication of smallpox
Dr. Rosamund Lewis, Head of Smallpox Secretariat for the World Health Organization (WHO), said smallpox had been a terrible disease, which had killed hundreds of millions of people for the last 3,000 years. In the 20th century alone, between 1900 and 1975, more than 300 million people died from it. This mattered today, as the world was in the midst of a new pandemic. The eradication of smallpox had been possible thanks to an incredible global cooperation, including during the Cold War. The WHO had been asked to coordinate the response in 1967 and had successfully done so.
Answering journalists’ questions, Dr. Lewis said there were only two laboratories holding the virus, and they did so under very strict conditions. Further, WHO performed routine checks of these facilities, under the authority of the World Health Assembly. Many countries and WHO held a stockpile of vaccines for this virus, and a treatment for it had been developed. Today with COVID-19, like then with smallpox, WHO was fighting misinformation and disinformation as this was critical to achieve eradication. Dr. Lewis added that sequencing of the variola virus, which caused the smallpox, was strictly prohibited under rules established by the World Health Assembly. Additional treatments for smallpox were needed in case it reappeared. Should a resistance develop, it would be important ensure global access to alternative treatments.
Update on World Health Assembly – WHA73
Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said the World Health Assembly (WHA73) would open on Monday 18 May 2020 at 12 p.m. and would close no later than Tuesday 19 May. The provisional agenda was available online. It included a debate on COVID-19. The whole Assembly would be webcast live on WHO’s website.
Also on the World Health Assembly, Mr. Lindmeier said the date for the November session had yet to be determined. The COVID-19 situation allowing, the full assembly would be held later this year.
Responding to a question, Steven Solomon, Principal Legal Officer for Governing Bodies for the World Health Organization (WHO), explained that, as per the WHO’s Constitution, the World Health Assembly’s functions include inviting any organization on conditions prescribed by the same Assembly. However, in the case of national organizations, invitations shall be issued only with the consent of the Government concerned.
The Director-General, in his capacity as the chief technical and administrative officer of the Organization and the ex-officio Secretary of the Health Assembly, had the discretion to invite external observers. This discretion, however, had to comply with the rules outlined in the WHO Constitution and the policies adopted by the World Health Assembly.
It had to be noted that, according to Resolution 25.1 adopted in 1972, the World Health Assembly recognized the representative of the People’s Republic of China as the only representatives of China to the World Health Assembly and expelled the representatives of Taiwan.
Announcement: new WIPO Director-General
Edward Harris, for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), said member states of WIPO on 8 May 2020, had appointed by consensus Daren Tang as the Organization's next Director General, with Mr. Tang's six-year term beginning on 1 October 2020. Mr. Tang’s appointment by the General Assembly, WIPO’s highest governing body, had followed his nomination by the WIPO Coordination Committee in March 2020. He would succeed Francis Gurry, who had served as WIPO's Director General since 1 October 2008.
A press release is available here.
Geneva announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said extensive discussions were being held on how and when to re-open the Palais des Nations, including for press briefings. It should be noted that journalists could still had access their offices.
The United Nations Information Centres in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna were jointly organizing a virtual Ciné-ONU. Participants were invited to watch the documentary “Unseen Enemy”, using a link and password which had been sent by email, and then attend an online discussion, today at 3 p.m., with the movie’s director, Janet Tobias, as well as Dr. Sylvie Briand, Director of Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness at WHO and Todd Howland, Chief of Development, Economic and Social Issues at OHCHR.
Teleprompter
Good morning.
Welcome to this press briefing of today, 8th of May in Geneva.
I would like to thank you all for being here and start by giving the floor according to our new pattern of of the briefing as requested.
But the journalist with that is last time with the announcements and I'll go straight to WIPO.
Edward Harris is with us for a short announcement.
Edward, you have the floor.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Good morning everyone.
I just wanted to draw your attention to a press communication which should be landing in your e-mail boxes right at this moment.
So the WIPO General Assembly as of this morning has confirmed Darren Tang of Singapore as the next Director General of WIPO.
Many of you came over in March to cover his nomination.
So that nomination has now been confirmed and Darren Tang is the DG elect for white ball.
He will take over on October 1st.
So if anybody wants to try and get in touch with him and his teams, just get in touch with me and I'll point you in the right direction.
Thanks, Alessandra.
Thank you very much.
Let me just give a second to the journalist to see if there's anyone who wants to ask you a question about that.
But I don't see any.
Just one SEC.
It takes a little bit of time to start.
OK.
No, I don't see any.
So thank you very much, Edward.
Good luck for for your new director general.
Best wishes in his new functions.
And I'll go now to WHOWHO Christian, you have today a guest for us, Doctor Rosamund Lewis, head of smallpox, secretary at The Who Are you there?
I can see Christian.
I don't see the doctor because we do physical distancing.
And so I will move out of the picture.
I would have done the intro that you just did.
Thank you, Alessandra.
So I will vacate the seat and let Doctor Lewis take over.
And I'll be off screen but listening and monitoring and let you run the run the question and answers.
All right, yes, indeed.
And I just remind you that as we are now putting the announcements at the beginning, Missus Lewis is speaking about the 40th anniversary of the declaration of the eradication of smallpox, the Health World Death Assembly.
But Christian will also be there to give you a short update on World Health Assembly just afterwards.
So Doctor Lewis, now that you are in our screen, I give you the floor.
Thank you.
Morning and thank you very much.
It's really a tremendous pleasure to be here today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox.
As you know, smallpox was a terrible disease.
It killed hundreds of millions of people for the last 3000 years, going all the way back to the Pharaoh Ramsay, the 5th.
And in the 20th century alone, between 1900 and 1975, more than 300 million people died from this terrible disease.
That works out on average to about 4 million a year, although of course it was more earlier in the century.
So what made this possible and why does it matter today?
This is what we're thinking about today in this new context.
We're in the midst of a new pandemic.
So what made it possible is that there was incredible global cooperation during in the middle of the Cold War.
So all nations decided to participate in this effort.
And even after the first attempt between 1958 and 1966, there was further intensification of the effort.
In 1967, the World Health Organisation was asked to take the lead and coordinate and did so with applause.
And so for 10 years, there was international cooperation to eradicate this disease, which caused terrible rashes and 1/3 of people died.
So in that time, it was possible to eliminate in Southeast Asia, in India, in Africa, with the support of the United States of America, with the support of Russia, and with the support of all governments and peoples everywhere.
So this was really an incredible achievement.
And the question is, what does it mean for us today?
So I'm happy to discuss with you those issues and take questions.
Thanks.
Thank you very much, Doctor Lewis.
Let me see.
I have a question from a journalist, Lisa, Lisa Schlein from Voice of America.
Lisa, you have the floor.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you and congratulations.
It certainly is a huge achievement.
But there has been an ongoing debate for a very, very long time as to whether the live virus should be destroyed because there are still some samples kept in Russian and United States laboratories, I believe because of fear of it escaping.
And particularly now when we're dealing with COVID-19.
And there has been so much speculation as to whether the coronavirus itself was perhaps man made or was live in a Chinese laboratory and might have escaped from that.
So if you would answer the question first, please, whether you whether the debate goes on whether it should be destroyed and what the parallels are regarding the question that I just asked you and the current coronavirus thing and and Alessandra, maybe I'll have a follow up.
I don't know.
Let's not hope because we we have other questions.
That's when I end up Doctor Lewis.
Sure, thank you very much.
So as we know, the last case of what was called variola major was in Bangladesh in 1975.
three-year old girl, a woman is still alive today.
And and the last case of variola minor was in Somalia in 1977.
I'm not avoiding the question.
I'm getting there.
The actual last case of smallpox was in Birmingham, the United Kingdom or England and that was due to a laboratory accident.
So indeed after that case in 1978 and the and the, the photographer's mother was also infected.
So the last two cases in 1978 led to a worldwide effort to contain variola virus, which is the virus that causes smallpox.
And so since that time we have had two WHO collaborating centres, one in the Russian Federation at Vector and one in United States of America at CDC.
These are the only two labs in the world that hold this virus, and they hold them on under extremely strict containment conditions.
And I've been there myself.
We inspect as WHO inspects these labs every two years and under the authority of the World Health Assembly.
So it's really important that containment be a part of this exercise for sure.
However, the debate on destruction is around the fact that at that time there was certainly a leak from a lab and that's what led to the containment.
But at the same time, there was deemed to be necessary a global effort to continue research with the virus, which we didn't have the same technology at the time, as you can imagine 40 years ago.
But now with all those decades of research, we are actually most countries, many countries, not all countries, many countries and of which have a stockpile of of vaccine in the event of a resurgence of smallpox.
And also treatments have now been approved.
So there's been a huge amount of research and development around the virus and around medical countermeasures, vaccines and treatments.
And so this is what has been the debate as to which is which is more important or how much research needs to be done between the safety of the world under very strict highest level containment possible in just two locations versus the public health benefits of of being able to develop vaccines and treatments for what was this terrible scourge which killed hundreds of millions.
So the parallels with with COVID-19 today are in fact more around how was the effort achieved?
How was eradication achieved?
And that was achieved through basic public health, basic epidemiology, shoe leather epidemiology of basically case finding, contact tracing, quarantine, isolation of cases, treatment.
These are the basic methods and approaches which supported the eradication effort.
Of course, for smallpox there was a vaccine and for COVID-19 we don't have one yet.
Hence, again, the importance of research and development.
The 2nd parallel that I could draw attention to perhaps and less obvious and we haven't talked about it as often, is the importance of communication.
So back in the day, people were sent to the field house to house with little.
You've seen them, I'm sure, photo picture cards of what smallpox looked like because it was needed to be distinguished from chickenpox and things like that.
So getting the right information to the right people in the right way at the right time is what helps to eradicate smallpox as well as the vaccine and the field EPI.
So today we're doing the same thing.
We're fighting myths, we're fighting misinformation, disinformation through risk communications, managing the infodemic, as we're now calling it.
Communication technologies change, but we now have social media.
But the basic need to get the message out as to what people can do to protect themselves and the right information remains critical as it was in smallpox and as it is today for COVID-19.
Thank you very much, Doctor Lewis.
Next question is from John Zaracostas for The Lancet.
Yes, good morning, Doctor Lewis.
I was wondering what is the argument for continuing to have to follow up on Lisa's question the the viruses in the two reference laboratories, given that with genetic sequencing you have it all with the good machinery in in a few days.
So if you have the genetic sequencing, why are you maintaining the viruses still?
What is the scientific argument?
Thank you, John, thank you.
Thank you for the question, Doctor Zaracostas.
The World Health Assembly has debated this for a number of years, as you know, and has continued to endorse the effort to ensure that there be adequate vaccine, safe vaccine and adequate treatments.
We have one treatment which has been approved in one member state and there are a couple of other treatments in the pipeline.
There are some monoclonal antibodies being tested and the.
So right now the world through the member states at the World Health Assembly have basically agreed for for now that one treatment is not sufficient because a resistance can develop to that antiviral agent.
So the important thing is has been agreed that there should be at least two and research efforts continue.
Meanwhile we have third generation and 4th generation vaccines which are also easier to administer and have slightly fewer side effects than than the ones we all have on our arms from the regional smallpox vaccine.
So the new vaccines don't 'cause that type of blister and are considered therefore to be to safer and more acceptable.
So the arguments have been making sure we have adequate medical countermeasures in this world today.
You are right that the sequence is available.
However, it's not.
It's a much more complex virus than some of the other viruses that have been taken so far.
And sequencing of the variola virus is strictly prohibited under The Who recommendations through the World Health Assembly.
At least the old people like like me, we still have the smallpox science.
Our children don't likely.
OK, so the next question is from Peter Kenny.
Peter, having grown up in Africa, I know that for many years of my life I could not travel to other countries without having a smallpox certificate.
Can you envisage that the same situation is going to occur for COVID-19 once a vaccine is found?
Thank you.
Thank you.
And you're right that the requirement for smallpox vaccination ceased, was stopped after the eradication and after it was deemed that the vaccine was no longer necessary because this truly was a virus that could only transmit person to person.
And therefore once there was no disease around, no vaccination was required.
Yellow fever, there's also still a vaccination requirement.
So it's not something that that is unusual.
It has also been there for decades and is meant to protect countries from importation of, of viruses.
As you point out, I think it's far too early to speculate about COVID.
First of all, we don't yet have a vaccine, although extreme efforts are underway at unprecedented speed to achieve that.
And there are many considerations around COVID that may make it slightly different from the other diseases we've already mentioned.
So it's premature to answer your question, but I, I, I do thank you for that.
I think it's worth thinking about.
Thank you very much, Doctor Lewis.
I see that John has a follow up.
Only one follow up.
Yes, very briefly, Doctor Lewis.
Why is there a need to have the live virus?
Is that to to do research for for a second treatment?
Is it essential to have the live virus for the scientists looking for new treatment for again, smallpox?
Yes, I believe we we covered that.
So there, there is currently one antiviral agent called Teccoverimat, which has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
There are other treatments in the pipeline that are very close to approval.
The Russian Federation has one that's that's undergoing regulatory review as we speak.
So there are others that are very close to approval in both in both countries and with and with other partners, other agencies and, and companies as well supporting the effort, supporting the effort of the public agencies.
So it is a public private partnership supporting this.
And the idea is to have sufficient medical countermeasures in the event of a resurgence or a leak or an accident, which is not likely from the labs we have today.
But as you've pointed out, new technology does slightly raise the concern around global health security.
And so it's important that we have these countermeasures and that all of this that we're celebrating today, smallpox eradication, but also the 40 years of action and research since are also really important to learn from for what we are just now starting out in a, in a new, in a new area of, of endeavour, COVID-19.
But I'd also like to mention one other point and that's, that says there's also a disease called human monkey pox.
It is actually a zoonosis.
It actually gets transmitted occasionally to people who are close to the forest and such like.
And it is similar.
It is not the same as smallpox and it is not as dangerous as smallpox and it's not as infectious as smallpox, but in many respects, clinically it is similar.
And so the medical countermeasures that are being developed, have been developed for smallpox are also now being assessed for monkey pox.
And that's a really important knock on benefit, if I can call it that, for global public health, that endeavour in one area, research in one area also benefits another area in public health.
That's also important, knock on.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
We have a last question from Isabel Sacco from FA.
The Spanish news agency is above.
Yeah.
Do you hear me?
Yes.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Good morning.
I just Doctor cover already.
My my question is it was, but maybe she can add something.
It was about why it it it is needed to have so many treatments for an eradicated illness and and that they just exist in in two laboratory settings.
But I don't know if it's necessary, if you have already one, to have several countries investigating for other things.
So there, thank you.
Yes, thank you for the question.
Why do we need more treatments for smallpox?
It's a really important question and one that's been debated for a number of years already at the World Health Assembly.
The benefit of the of the one treatment is, is is definite, but it's not possible to know right now whether smallpox would ever reappear.
So on the one hand, we have one of the greatest global public health achievements that mankind has ever seen.
And if we were to for any reason, have a resurgence of smallpox and not be ready for it, it would not be excusable.
So on the one hand, it's the due diligence, the responsibility to maintain medical countermeasures for smallpox, but on the other hand it's also a question of access and availability.
Having one drug in one country is is good.
It's really important.
But what's more important is ensuring global access and ensuring that should there be resistance developed to this one drug that we also have Plan B or alternates that can be used in different circumstances and to if needed rapidly A ramp up production should should that be needed.
As I've also mentioned, there are there are benefits for for monkey pox from those agents as well.
And we hope that we'll be able to develop programmes to roll that out in the future.
Isabel, you, you're not happy with the answer?
I'm sorry, I can't see your face.
So not sure if you're happy or not.
Do you do you hear me now?
Yes, it's just that because how can human can develop resistance for virus that is not circulating?
Yes, thank you.
It's, it's, it's not so much that humankind develops resistance, it's the virus itself could develop resistance.
As you know, some viruses, the strains change slightly, just like with influenza virus, it changes every year.
And we have a different seasonal flu vaccine that's adapted to, to the virus that's circulating.
So it is possible for viruses to, to shift slightly or to have major shifts.
Variola itself has used to have variola minor and variola major.
They were the same virus, but they were slight genetic differences in the, in the genome.
And so it is possible that if and when a virus starts circulating that these slight shifts could result in less effectiveness of of a given product because the product is designed in the lab against certain proteins or certain genetic features of the virus itself.
And so when we get that product, if the virus is is circulating from person to person, it can shift slightly and therefore the product may or may not continue to be effective.
It depends very much on the situation, on the virus and on the product in question.
It's not possible right now to know in advance what would happen in that case, but it's it's the virus that develops the, the resistance more than the, the humans.
Thank you very much, Doctor Lewis.
I never should say last because there's another question and this one is from Freddy Mulungo.
Do you speak French, Doctor Lewis?
I'm I'm on a Pancor Comocia fed weekly content based briefings.
Alizi.
Freddy.
Cafe.
Hello Freddy.
There are no more questions, I think for you specifically Doctor Lewis, unless you want to answer Fred this question.
Maybe I can turn to Christian for for this as you like.
I think that all I can say on this particular question, is there any questions?
Thank you very much, Doctor Lewis, before I I turn to WMO, Christian has maybe you want to switch chairs for the distancing to inspect the distancing principles.
And Christian, you had also a short announcement, a short update on World Health Assembly, right, a short announcement on World Health Assembly.
And let's see, because I also have a second specialist with me, our legal legal counsel, Steve Solomon, because the World Health Assembly is triggering some other questions now, of course, hence we thought we'll tackle this right up front.
So let me run quickly through the runoff show for the World Health Assembly as we know so far, because the steering comedian is still preparing the the final documents, more and more documents about the assembly coming online.
That's important.
So if you follow the, the normal websites, more and more agenda items are are being added as they get prepared and created.
So let me just run through this and sorry it's so hot off the press.
I haven't don't have it on on top of my head yet.
So the Assembly 73 opens on Monday, 18 May at 12:00 and closes no later than Tuesday, 19 May.
The agenda for the 18 May meeting of the WJ is in the provisional agenda as just mentioned and it's on line already.
The assembly will be webcast live on The Who website.
As far as I know, so far there's not no closed meeting.
That means the whole assembly will be webcast live.
The programme so far, typically the opening of the Health Assembly by the the the previous president, then the election of the new president, the presidential address statement by invited speakers.
That is not yet clear who would that be addressed by the Director General, of course.
And we will also send the the written statement then around as usual, statements by heads of delegations on COVID-19.
So that is the debate on COVID-19 obviously then procedural element, the executive board elections just to remind you again, 34 members of the executive board with a three-year term and a third of those get re elected or elected each year.
And then we have a already the closure, the closing session and the executive Board, the 147 executive Board will start then on Friday, 22 May maybe Side note, there will be no programme budget meetings or no PBAC meeting this year, this not this year maybe that is hopefully happening in November when we have the full assembly follow up, but not at this session.
Now 1819 May, we would like to have a head on talk about the Taiwan scenario.
So there have been a lot of questions recently, again, unfortunately, about invitation of Taiwan, discussion around Taiwan and the discussion whether there is authority to invite Taiwan as an observer before we receive 20 questions around this.
I'd be happy to invite Steve Solomon now to to give you clarification on this one.
And of course, afterwards happy to take questions, even if this takes a few more minutes.
Sorry, Alessandra.
Thank you.
It's OK, Christian, just I would like to ask your colleague to state his name because we didn't have this announcement.
So the journalists don't have in writing the name of your colleague.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The we understand there may be 20 questions on this.
Not yet.
Not yet.
That's actually that's actually the name of a, a game.
There's a game called 20 questions.
It's useful for long term.
Yes, I'm going to Yes, I am Stephen Solomon.
I'm the principal legal officer for international constitutional and global health law in the legal counsel's office.
Stephen Solomon, can you put your name in the summary with your title?
Go ahead.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you very much.
So let me say what what the situation is now that there is there are 6 member states that have proposed A supplementary item for the WHA 73 agenda.
The supplementary item that they have proposed is entitled Inviting Taiwan as an Observer to the World Health Assembly.
So there have been many questions about how this would work and about whether the DG has authority to invite Taiwan on his own.
Let me say at this point, as this issue is before Member States of the Assembly, which is where it properly should be, it is a issue of policy and in fact of sensitive of a sensitive geopolitical nature.
It is properly before the Health Assembly, the Health Assembly, the Member States are responsible and their mandate is to take care of the policy of the organisation.
The Secretariat, the Director General and staff works on the advancing the public health mandate of the organisation within the rules and policies established by the Member states.
So if I may to to understand this and we appreciate the opportunity to speak about this, you the, it's important to go back to the founding document of the organisation itself, which is The Who Constitution.
So, and I thought we'd take just a moment to walk through it because I think if you walk through the language of the Constitution, which is very straightforward, it makes it clear why this is the case, why member states take care of the policy issues, including in particular who attends their highest level meeting, the World Health Assembly and the mandate of the Secretariat, the Director General for technical, scientific, public health issues and the administration of them.
So this derives directly from the Constitution.
You can see it in Article 31 of the Constitution for those who want to call it up on your Google screens, just do Google WHO Constitution and you can find it, of course, in all of the six languages.
I'll read it out for those who might not have a screen handy for them.
Article 31 of the Constitution, second sentence, the important one provides the Director General, subject to the authority of the Board, shall be the chief technical and administrative officer of the organisation.
So that's the overall responsibility for the DG dealing with technical and administrative matters for the organisation.
You'll then see in Article 32, just one just below, that the Director General shall be ex officio, the Secretary of the Health Assembly.
So this means being the Secretary of the Health Assembly that he is responsible in two important areas.
He's responsible for following the rules and policies of the organisation.
Rules and policies is set by Member States and he's also responsible for the good order of the Health Assembly.
Now, let's first talk about what those rules and policies are that he is responsible for following as the secretary of the Health Assembly.
And here we just go to another part of the Constitution and thank, forgive me for take walking you through the Constitution, but this is where it all begins.
It is the foundational document.
So the rules of the health assembly on invite invitations to observers are found in Article 18 H and Article 18 H sets out what the functions of the health assembly shall be the functions of the health assembly, so these are not the functions of the director general.
The functions of the health assembly and Article 18 H reads as follows.
The functions of the Health Assembly shall be to invite any organisation, international or national, governmental or non governmental, which has responsibilities related to those of the organisation to appoint representatives to participate without right to vote.
That's a description of the observer status.
But it goes on to say on conditions prescribed by the Health Assembly.
On conditions prescribed by the Health Assembly And in the case, it makes it even more specific here, indicating the the interests of the drafters of the Constitution and countries in exercising the authority with respect to who participates in their meeting.
It goes on to say as on conditions prescribed by the Health Assembly.
But in the case of national organisations, invitation shall be issued only with the consent of the government concerned.
So when it comes to the DGS discretion to invite, that discretion is based on the application of Article 18 H and in the past, the DG has invited entities.
He has done so on the understanding that it is consistent that those invitations are consistent with Article 18 H and he does so because his function is Chief Technical and Administrative Officer and Secretary of the Health Assembly with responsibilities.
So who is the DG invited under the authority when he has found when D GS in the past have found that it is consistent with Article 18 H Well, entities where there have been no questions of controversy, for example, like Gabby, the Vaccine Alliance, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, These are examples of the invitations he's extended now on 8 occasions.
The previous, the Office of the Director General has also invited Taiwan to participate as an observer.
That invitation was issued on the basis of a cross Strait understanding and on because the other policy, and I should have mentioned this earlier, the policy that is important.
I said that the DGS followed the rules and policies.
That's the constitutional rule.
The policy set on this issue with respect to Taiwan is set out in a resolution of the Health Assembly Resolution 25.1.
And that resolution, which the DG is also responsible for carrying forward in good faith, provides that the the World Health Assembly recognised the representate the representatives of the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China to the World Health Assembly.
And I'll re continue reading and expelled expelled the representatives of Chiang Kai Shek from the World Health Assembly.
The I'll read it exactly from quote.
The resolution 25.1 recognised the representatives of the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the World Health Organisation and this was again the decision of the Health Assembly in 1972 and to and expelled Occupy at the World Health Organisation.
That was the agreed language in the decision in 1972.
That decision still stands.
The reference to the representatives of Chiang Kai Shek is a reference to what was then and is still the official name of Taiwan, the Republic of China.
So the EG must must act consistently with that.
So the when the invitation to Taiwan was extended, it was extended those times that it was on the basis of an understanding reached across the Straits and on an assessment by the DG that the invitation would also be consistent with Article 18 H.
So with respect to the question that was asked, does the DG have discretion to invite observers, the answer is yes and it is a conditional discretion.
It is conditional on his responsibilities as Secretary of the Assembly and as Chief Technical Administrative Officer, conditioned that his invitations are consistent with the rules of the constant set out in the Constitution and the policies decided by the World Health Assembly.
So I hope that was a long answer.
I wanted to take you all through it because to see how it fits together, to see how it is grounded in the Constitution.
I think it's very important to help the understanding on this very important, very sensitive issue.
Thank you.
I really hope to add, yeah, to add that any change, that's why this has to.
That's why the Assembly is the only body competent to make changes in this area.
It's the Assembly's constitution.
It's the Assembly's decision.
The only competent body to make changes, the only body with control and authority and power is the Assembly itself.
It's not the director general.
It's not the Secretariat of WHO.
Thank you very much, Sir.
I hope this has been quite clear, but I still see there are a lot of questions.
So please if you can give a short answers, I will start with John Taracostas from The Lancet.
John, yes, question, can you hear me and question and answer brief?
Yes, thank you.
Good morning.
Stephen, Firstly, I'd like to get you to clarify the other day when you're doing the actions in the briefing that the Taiwan participates.
I understand they don't participate in going global alert and response network.
What's the legal reasons for that, why they can't participate?
And secondly, how does the Taiwan situation differ from the question of Palestine?
OK, thanks.
I can see we may have more than 20 questions here.
We're getting into, you know, very, very important areas, very interesting areas.
But let, let me, let me tell you what about the participation of Taiwan in the technical work, the technical and scientific work of the organisation, because it is quite broad.
It occurs both in the in the context of the response to COVID-19 and it occurs generally 5 important in areas in each.
With respect to the International Health Regulations, the Taiwanese CDC has a point of contact that works with the that has direct contact with WHO headquarters.
It is one of the points of contacts with the same rights of access and back and forth connectivity as every state party to the International Health Regulations.
The Taiwanese are Taiwanese experts are also participating in three of the networks that have been stood up for the response.
They participate in the clinical management network, they participate in the infection prevention and control network, and they are now participating in the vaccine network.
These are among the most important networks dealing with the response for obvious reasons.
We have direct briefings with Taiwan, the Taiwanese CDC experts, they have been done by our technical lead doctor Maria Van Kerkov.
The Taiwanese experts also participated in the Research and Innovation forum.
Taiwanese experts work with WHO directly also through the European Centres for Disease Control.
The question was about go on.
So that deals with something that is not specific.
It's involved in the COVID response, but it's not specific to it.
So for those other areas, Taiwan, which is to say Taiwanese experts participate in last year 8 technical meetings.
They participate in the pandemic influenza preparedness framework through there the Adamine Corporation vaccine manufacturer in Taiwan.
Taiwanese experts participate in the International Agency for Research in Cancers publication called the IR Blue Book.
They have a technical expert on the IHR roster of experts that is the source for experts on the emergency committee and there are throughout the year numerous face to face meetings between WHO technical experts and Taiwanese technical experts.
These are all based on issues of technical of technical experts with the right technical aspects.
Go on is an area where we know there has been interest in their participation that hasn't been set up at this point.
We are looking always for areas where technical work with the organisation can continue and that's an area that we will be looking at as well.
So I hope that answers that answers the question.
Thank you very much Palestine.
I can I can say very quickly, Palestine is invited as an observer by the World Health Assembly.
That was resolution WHA 27.37 and it is where the Health Assembly decided again, policies of the Health Assembly and underscoring the point, it's these these are health Assembly decisions.
The Health Assembly decided to invite Palestine as an observer.
Thanks.
Yan.
Yan Eberman.
Yes, good morning, Yan Haberman.
My name I I write for several German language media.
It's also on the WHA.
There has been loads of criticism towards the the DG, Doctor Ted Ross and my over the handling of the corona pandemic.
My question is, is there any provision in The Who rules or Constitution that allows member states to hold a vote of no confidence in the DG or call for a sort of impeachment trial in the DG?
Thank you.
Yeah, well, if you go back to the roof Article 32, which I mentioned, you'll see right up front there that the DG is an elected official.
His accountability is to all 194 Member States as an elected official.
I surprised you with a short answer, I guess.
Yes.
I was waiting for the for the, for the.
But it's very good.
No, no, it's very well.
It's very well like that.
No, no problem.
You know, you're asking a lawyer to give short answers.
That is, you know, that's putting me on a on the spot.
Yeah.
That is why we we should have organised a separate briefing.
If you know.
Catherine.
Catherine Fiancon.
Yes.
Good morning, Steven.
Thank you for being with us this morning and it's a pleasure yes and Alessandra, you're right.
I mean this deserved an exclusive briefing because we really have a lot of questions for Stephen.
Stephen, could you please be more precise about the six member states that have proposed that supplementary item?
You did not mention the countries.
Thank you.
Yes, I'll, I'll, I'll give you them as we know them so far there.
There may be more because it's there's still time, but **** on just a moment while Steven is looking.
Can you hear me?
Yes, just to mention we will do.
We're planning on a separate assembly specific briefing on the procedures and run on for the assembly for next week.
So that's in plan.
So you, you don't need to ask all the procedural questions.
Now for for Steve, let's focus on the issues I've handed possible because exactly what you're asking Catherine, we actually are planning one for next week as things are still developing.
Cheers.
OK, and then I can make this a quick answer.
Here's the six Iswatini, Marshall Islands, Nicaragua, Palau, St.
Lucia and Paraguay.
And I believe many if not all of their submittals are already on the website.
OK, so you can go and look at what they've said and in fact you can even go look at what they proposed in their draught resolution, which by the way, by the way, the draught resolution says that the WHA shall invite Christian, Christian, sorry, Christian Erich, is also a procedure.
One.
Is there going to be a vote on those propositions or is this going to be dissolved, resolved before the WHA starts?
What exactly is the procedure to to decide on whether Taiwan can join or not?
I can give you another short answer to that question.
That's up to member states.
Yeah, but what do they do?
Do they decide when?
When the health assembly starts, we are not going to take a vote.
Is that a vote to not take a vote on the issue or how does that actually happen?
OK, I can give you a longer answer by telling you about the history on this issue, but very, but I can, I can make that because Christian is saying no, make it short.
So, but I can tell you, I can tell you very briefly that the proposal for a similar supplementary item has been made many times in the past, 14 times in the past.
And on two of those occasions it was voted.
On the rest of the occasions it was addressed through a agreed process and it was decided by consensus not to accept the proposal.
And on the two occasions it was voted, their vote was against accepting the proposal.
Thank you, Sir.
Gabriela Sotomayor, thank you so much for taking my question.
So the DG has has the right to invite someone like Gabby or these alliances that you mentioned, but they can, but he can invite Taiwan as well.
The problem is that just just to let me say.
So we are assuming that China will say no.
But in the light of transparency, maybe China say yes and say yes, let's bring Taiwan because we want everybody to be in the same page or something like that.
I mean, we are assuming that China is going to say no.
OK.
So no, I thank you.
Thank you for the question.
I was just going to say that it's not a, it's not a right.
It's it's a, it's a matter that is related to his responsibilities as secretary of the Assembly as set out in the Constitution.
So the constitution doesn't say the DG has a right.
The Constitution says the DG should be the Secretary of the World Health Assembly and that means he has responsibilities as a secretary, which I, I've laid out before.
And I think the question is, is it possible that China might say under the circumstances that they would attend?
That's a question for China.
That is a question for because they are the ones I think you're addressing that too, the Secretariat.
The Secretariat doesn't have any mandate to involve itself in, in issues, political issues, particularly where there are sensitivities and aspects that have already been addressed by the Health Assembly.
And I think I've referred you to WHA 25.1, which is the resolution of the Health Assembly which addressed itself to this matter and still stands today.
Thank you, Sir.
I will take the last two questions and then we will go to WA More.
Paula.
Yes, hi.
This is probably more a question for a Christian regarding an appeal that was made earlier this week To WHO should I ask it now or let me see if just one second?
Let me see.
Because they will have to switch chairs if you.
Yoshitake has a question for Doctor Solomon.
And then eventually we'll ask Christian to answer you.
Can you be unmuted, please?
Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
Now you are.
Go ahead.
OK, So the question to Mr Solomon, technically, who's who's giving the invitation?
Is it president of the WHA or or DJ on behalf of WHA and the Yes, even that even that, thank you.
Even that is decided by the World Health Assembly.
So for example, in the decision regarding Palestine, the decision was specifically said to request the DG to issue the invitation.
This underscores his role as Secretary of the Assembly.
So that decision said, that decision said request the DG to issue the invitation.
And I think that underscores how these matters are really held, held at the policy level, held at the level of sovereign states.
The Assembly though can do it directly.
And in fact the six countries I mentioned in their draught resolution proposed different language.
Their language says that the World Health Assembly invites.
Now again that's not agreed language.
That's their proposal on this issue.
Thank you very much.
So I close with Paula.
OK, so there this for for question, it's the number of cases in the Amazon has been rapidly in, we've seen the situation in Manaus and now in Iquitos in Peru.
There there in the public hospital there are four times the number of patients and 90% of whom are dying without some oxygen respirators there.
There was an appeal that was made earlier this week by a number of actually the largest indigenous organisations in in the Amazon as well as parliamentarians from the the country's indigenous parliamentarians in, in these countries to Doctor Tedros asking for assistance with with PPE and other and other equipment.
I was wondering, I haven't actually heard is how is WHO responding to this, this request?
Thank you, Paula.
So thank you.
This is obviously a very specific request which I'm not directly aware of, but in general, and this has been mentioned many times, the the adequate and fair distribution of necessary protective personal equipment is of utmost important for all communities around the world, for all hospitals, for all healthcare workers.
And we've seen shortages all across the globe in the centre of Europe, in the US in in in Africa, everywhere.
But for specifically vulnerable populations.
This adds another layer of importance.
So while this is of utmost important, there should be best definitely be looked into it.
A lot of distribution of material of personal protective equipment was already done by W Joe.
There were I don't have the figures in front of me, but something like more than let me see if I have some yes, For example, as of 22 April, so slightly outdated, but it gives you it gives you a bit of a bit of an idea.
W Joe bought and shipped PPE personal protective equipment to 133 countries.
That includes more than 2.5 million surgical masks 100,000 and 95 to specific masks, 1.6 million gloves and and and so this is one of the roles, of course, of W Joe to address this in the court.
Again, this was sent to 133 countries, but at the same time, it's a national responsibility also.
But that specific request I don't have an answer to.
OK, Christian, thank you very much.
Look, I see there are more questions for you, but I'll take the I'll keep my word.
I will ask Shane, Katherine and Jamil, who have raised their hands now to wait until the end.
I'm happy to stay as long as necessary.
I give the floor to WHO later on, if Christian can be with us.
And I will now go to the next briefings because people have been waiting for almost one hour to brief you on the other subjects.
So thank you very much.
Christian, if you can stay with us, you'll I'll give the floor to these journalists later on to ask you the questions.
And I'll now go to WMO to Claire Nullis, who wants to talk to us about the impact of COVID on the global weather observing system.
Claire, you have the floor.
Yes, Sir, thank you and good morning, everybody.
I will I will try and keep this this brief.
The World Meteorological Organisation yesterday issued an update on the impact of COVID-19 on the global observing system.
And we will keep issuing updates as we get, as we get more information, as the weeks go by.
In a nutshell, we are increasingly concerned about the impact of the of, of, of, of COVID on the observing system and in particular on measurements taken by, by, by by aircraft.
Before the pandemic we used to receive about 800,000 pretty **** quality observations per day.
So talking about per day of from aircraft of air temperature, wind speed, etcetera.
Since the pandemic, the meteorological measurements taken from aircraft have dropped by between 75 to 80%.
But in some parts of the world, notably in the Southern Hemisphere, in the Tropic, it's it's closer to 90%.
So that's obviously a big, big hole which we know which we now have.
Some countries, especially in Europe, are trying to fill the gap by working together to launch extra weather balloons to to get the observations.
But obviously it is a big concern.
And then added to that, the surface based weather observations are in decline, especially in Africa and some parts of Central and South America.
This is because these parts of the world rely on manually operated weather stations rather than automatic ones.
People can't get to work, they can't maintain the stations because of lockdown.
And so we are seeing a big decline in, in observations from from these parts, these parts of the world.
Obviously the satellite components are still still functioning and the automated parts of the networks are still functioning as well.
But the longer this crisis continues, you know, the obviously the bigger the, the impact.
So the impacts will, will will be and as we've seen from, you know, the hurricane which hit Vanuatu and other Pacific islands, as we're currently seeing from the floods in East Africa, bad weather and weather hazards will not stop because of COVID.
So we really do need these weather forecasts and warnings.
Thank you very much, Claire.
So any question to Claire, Lisa.
Hi, Claire.
I'd like to ask you, Claire, hi specifically.
I mean you mentioned Vanuatu and another thing I forgot that is I'd like you to give some more examples.
I mean, you talk about the impacts.
What specifically are the impacts?
Is this not allow countries to prepare for for disasters?
I mean, I'd like to get a more concrete picture of why these observations are so incredibly important.
OK, well, the the global observing system is as strong as the weakest link.
So if we suddenly have a big hole in observations coming from, from Africa that you know, will impact the overall quality of, of observations at at global level, the way weather forecasts work is by what we call numerical weather predictions.
And that's, it's the IT and the new medical weather prediction, it's, you know, it needs the constant supply of observations from around the world to ensure accurate forecasts and climate products.
It's, you know, it's a bit like an engine which needs fuel.
Now at the moment, none of the global numerical weather prediction centres.
So these are the big centres based in places such as the United States, the United Kingdom, etcetera.
None have reported that catastrophic losses in skill due to due to the lack of observations, but it's something you know, that we are monitoring, we are concerned about.
So that's, that's talking about the impact on on observations.
Now when it comes to disaster management, disaster response, you know, that's a whole new ball game.
And I think probably we could, we could actually have a separate briefing on that rather than today, you know, we're we're seeing now serious floods in East Africa and I'm going to talk about that shortly along with UNHCR.
We're coming up to the Atlantic hurricane season.
So, you know, obviously, you know, extreme weather puts health systems, infrastructure, you know, under a lot of pressure at the best of times.
And now we've got COVID-19 as an additional complicating fact.
Thank you, Claire.
I don't see any other question for you.
Thank you very much and thanks for your patience.
I will now go to Rupert Colville for OHCHR.
Rupert, I see you.
You're online if you can be unmuted.
Rupert, you're on.
Thank you very much for your patience.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Alessandra.
We'll start with, we've got 2 items today on, on Syria and on the migrants in the Mediterranean.
This is starting with Syria.
The **** Commissioner of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, is today expressing her serious concerns about continuing human rights violations and abuses and a sharp rise in killings of civilians across Syria.
She's warning the situation is deteriorating, saying it's a ticking time bomb that must not be ignored.
We're receiving more reports every day of targeted killings and bombings from one end of the country to the other, with many such attacks taking place in populated areas.
Various parties to the conflict in Syria, including ISIL, appear to view the global focus on the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to regroup and inflict violence on the population.
In April, we documented at least 35 civilian deaths due to attacks involving improvised explosive devices, or IEDs as they're called, compared to just 7 the previous month.
And since the start of March have been a total of 33 IED attacks, 26 of which took place in residential neighbourhoods, while seven other attacks hit markets.
Nearly all of these attacks have occurred in northern and eastern parts of the country under the control.
So these areas under the control of the Turkish Armed Forces and their affiliated armed groups or areas under control of the opposing Kurdish LED Syrian Democratic Forces.
In one of the deadliest attacks in recent months, 51 people, of whom at least 29 were civilians and possibly more were killed on the 28th of April when a fuel truck truck exploded in a market in the northwestern city of Afrin.
In most of these cases, no one is claiming responsibility for for the attacks.
Then in the South, in the government controlled Daraa Governorate, we've documented 52 incidents of apparently targeted killings since the start of March and these have resulted in the deaths of 17 civilians and injuries to others.
In one attack on the 4th of April, former armed group members abducted and killed 9 police officers in the time of Al Muzarib in western rural Daraa.
And in the past two weeks, ISIL has claimed responsibility for three attacks in the area.
As you know, Syria has been wracked by violence for nearly a decade, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions.
Countless families have been traumatised and numerous cities, towns, villages and individual homes have been destroyed.
If the current patterns of violations and abuses continue to spread and escalate, there's a risk the country will enter another spiral of extreme and widespread violence, committed with impunity by all parties to the conflict.
The ceasefire in the northwestern province of Idlib, which was brokered by Turkey and Russia, is generally still holding, although there are intermittent caches and ground based strikes between pro government forces on the one hand and armed groups, so these are continuing to be reported in western rural Aleppo and in southern rural Hitler.
The **** Commissioner is also expressing alarm at the number of deaths and injuries caused by explosive remnants of war, such as land mines and other forms of unexploded ordnance.
Since the start of March, there's been 41 such incidents, resulting in the deaths of 29 civilians.
The **** Commissioner is echoing the calls by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, for a global ceasefire and urging all parties to the various conflicts in Syria to abide by that call.
The protection of civilian life is paramount and the blatant disregard for civilian safety runs contrary to the obligations that all parties must uphold under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The **** Commissioner urges all those continuing to fight, **** and displace the battles and beleaguered Syrian people to step back and give peace a chance.
And the press release on that has just has just gone out, I believe.
Thank you very much, Rupert.
I see already first question from Nick.
Yeah, hi.
Good morning to everyone.
Rupert, with regard to the incident described in there are there's been anecdotal evidence of targeted killings, abductions that seem to have been perpetrated by regime security elements against former opposition members over many months on OHCROHCHR haven't been able to really provide any chapter and verse on it.
Do you have information now?
And if not, why are we just getting information about abuses by or killings by opposition elements now?
What's the situation with regard to the killings that are being carried out by regime forces?
Well, in that area, that government, it's a mix of incidents.
There seem to be and some of them, you know, no claims are made as to who's responsible.
But I can give you some some recent examples, for example, and I think the in particular the sort of re emergence of ISIL, which in the past two weeks has claimed responsibility for, for three separate killings there or attempted killings.
So just on on Monday of this week, there were two incidents which I saw claimed responsibility for.
So they there was a what appeared to be a drive by shooting targeting Mukhtar in the town of Al Garia Al Shakiya in eastern rural Dara.
They didn't actually **** him.
Maybe he was injured, but ISIL claimed responsibility for that attack, saying claiming he was a government spy.
Also on Monday, three members of government Air Force intelligence were killed in another drive by shooting on the outskirts of Al Malia Al Shakya in eastern rural Daraa.
And ISIL claimed responsibility for that attack as well.
There are, you're quite right.
There are allegations that government forces have also been targeting people in, in sort of targeted assassinations.
But as I said, in some cases it's not entirely clear.
I mean, you get some kind of clue by the, the identity of the victim, but the, the, it's not always awfully clear who's who's responsible.
But this, this event when 9 policemen were killed was, it was a complex one because 22 bodies of former fighters for armed groups were found on the outskirts of the town of Ipta on the 4th of May.
So that was also Monday.
These were men who'd formally reconciled with the with the government, but they had mean, you know, kept their arms and so on.
So their bodies were found.
The father of one of them accused the Syrian government of being behind the killing of his son.
And then reportedly he and other former fighters then attacked the police station, abducted the 9 policemen and killed them.
And then that that incident has continued to sort of balloon with, with counter attacks and the family's house was burned down and so on.
So it's a, it's a complex mix and there are allegations and counter allegations.
But no, I mean, we're not trying to say the government, government forces are not involved at all.
They are, but the most recent ones.
And I think it's particularly alarming that ISIL has now started to claim responsibility for some of these attacks, which was not the case a few weeks ago.
They may have been involved as well, but now they they are very much coming out and saying they're, they're responsible for attacks.
Thank you, Rupert.
Next question is from Byram.
You have the floor.
Byram, you are, you're on.
Can you hear me?
Yes, very well.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
Mr Rupert.
You said no one took responsibility for the attack in Afim which 40 civilian died including eleven children.
This attack condemned widely by United Nations General Secretary Mr Guterres and other European Union, United States.
So who may be responsible for these attacks?
As Turkish security forces says they have clear evidence that this attack organised by PKKYPG terrorist organisation.
Thank you, Rupert.
Yeah, Byron, that, you know, that could well be true, but it's not, you know, it's not proven if you like so.
And as far as I understand, no, no specific claim was made.
It was a particularly horrific attack.
It we believe 51 people were killed in all we are monitoring team has confirmed that 29 of those people were were definitely civilians.
That included two, two women and small four boys.
Details around the of the identity, names and gender of the other 22 people who were killed are yet to be verified.
And in some cases that's simply because their bodies were charged beyond all recognition.
And at least another 54 people were were injured.
So you're talking of total casualties of of over 100 people and among the injured, the women, boys and the girl.
So whoever was responsible, responsible for something that was truly atrocious.
But in terms of really ascribing 11 May guess one may have ideas.
So I think if the Turkish forces have good evidence of this, obviously the Commission of inquiry on Syria would be perhaps the place to, to, to provide that evidence to as well as ourselves.
That said, there are also, there are also attacks taking place in the areas under control of the Kurdish armed groups as well.
And, and again, similar situation where no one's claiming responsibility, allegations are made in the other direction.
And so for example, on the 1st of May, 2 boys were killed and three, three men from the same family were injured as a result of a roadside improvised explosive device that detonated during their near their house in eastern rural Dara Zor.
People have also been killed or injured in in crossfire between different armed groups in that area as well.
Thank you, Rupert.
The next question is from Jan Jan Eberman.
Jan, yes, go ahead.
OK.
Yeah.
Good morning, Rupert.
It's on the, it's on the ceasefire in the northwestern province of Idlib.
You're saying that ground based strikes between pro government forces and armed groups continue to be reported in western rural Aleppo and southern rural Idlib.
So is it is it fair to say that Russian forces are respecting the ceasefire since they mainly carry out air strikes?
I mean, again, it hard to really, really verify who's doing what to whom when.
But I think what we can say in general about the situation in LeBron Idlib is by and large the ceasefire is holding.
The the clashes are kind of intermittent, intermittent and they, as I said earlier, attending to be ground based strikes.
And these are believed to be to find out between pro government forces on the one hand and non state armed groups on the other in both western rural Leppo and in southern rural Idlib.
But by and large, and that's the only sort of glimmer of good news, if you like is, is that the ceasefire in general is holding reasonably well at the moment.
Thank you, Rupert.
Next question from Lisa.
Thank you.
Hi.
Good morning, Rupert.
OK.
Says I'm unmuted.
Thanks.
Yeah, I'd like to know whether IS or ISIL, as you call them, is making a comeback because the Trump administration threw the Kurds under the bus, so to speak.
And how strong a presence does Islamic State have in the region now?
I mean, do you think they pose a real ******?
Yeah.
As to why they're re emerging or how they're re emerging that that, you know, who knows?
There's lots of stuff that goes on in the shadows both in in Syria itself and as we know, you know, many escaped, you know, the final sort of battles that took place appear to may lower for a while, but they are now clearly coming out and claiming responsibility for some attacks.
They may have been responsible for other attacks before that.
They're active in a number of appeared to be active at least in a number of areas in the country there is.
Yeah, I mean it's very such an area.
Sorry, I've got a list somewhere but I can't find it.
So yeah, I mean that that obviously I saw this is a vicious and horrendous group and and nobody wants to see them re emerging in any shape or form.
But they do appear to be, you know, to what extent and how, how organised they are and how capable they are of continuing to expand their operations.
Not clear, but they're there and they're acting again.
Thank you very much, Rupert.
Let me see, I don't see any other question on this subject.
So maybe you want to speak about your other subject on the migrants in the Mediterranean.
And we also have a Charlie who will say something about that.
So if you want to go ahead, Rupert, and then I'll, I'll ask Charlie to complete on this particular item and we will go to the questions.
Please just get my notes, Alessandra, please.
OK.
Yes.
On the Mediterranean, we're deeply concerned about recent reports of failure to assist and also coordinated push backs of migrant folks in the central Mediterranean, which continues to be one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.
Reports that Maltese authorities requested commercial ships to push boats with migrants and refugees in distress back to the **** seas are a particular concern.
We're also concerned that the humanitarian search and rescue vessels which usually patrol the central Mediterranean area are being prevented from supporting migrants in distress at a time when the numbers attempting to make the perilous journey from Libya to Europe has increased sharply following the immobilisation of two humanitarian rescue ships, the Alan Kurdi and the Aita Mari.
There are currently no active humanitarian search and rescue vessels in the central Mediterranean.
It's also been alleged that administrative regulations and measures are being used to impede the work of humanitarian NGOs, including those operating the boats.
So we call for restrictions on the work of of these rescuers to be lifted immediately.
Such measures are clearly putting lives at risk.
In the first three months of this year, there's already been a four fold increase in departures from Libya compared to the same.
In 2019.
Migrants embarking on the journey have a diverse range of protection needs under both international human rights and refugee law, including the principle of Nora Fulmal, which protects all migrants, regardless of their migration or asylum status, from being expelled or returned to dangerous environments.
And clearly, Libya is a very dangerous environment.
Yet, since the 9th of April, both Italy and Malta have declared their ports unsafe for disembarkation due to COVID-19, and currently we understand that there are at least three vessels with migrants on board awaiting disembarkation on the 7th of May.
That's yesterday, media reported that a small group of adults, including a pregnant woman and some children were allowed to disembark from one of the vessels after the Maltese government gave a concession on humanitarian grants.
While we welcome this effort, we call out for all migrants currently being held on board these vessels to be urgently disembarked as the conditions on merchant vessels are not suitable for long term accommodation on the 15th of April.
So around 3 weeks ago, Wounds Mill verified that a vessel containing 51 migrants and asylum seekers, including eight women and three children, was returned to Libya on a private Maltese boat after being picked up within Maltese waters.
And the migrants were sent to Takik Al Sika detention facility by the Libyan authorities.
And during their six days at sea, five people have died and seven others went missing and of resumed crime.
We're also aware of claims that distress calls to relevant maritime rescue coordination centres, and there are three main ones have gone unanswered or been ignored, which if true, seriously calls into question the commitment of the state's concern to saving lives and respecting human rights.
Meanwhile, the Libyan Coast Guard is continuing to turn vessels back towards its own shores and place the intercepted migrants in arbitrary detention facilities where they face horrendous conditions, as we've often spoken of in the past, including torture and ill treatment, sexual violence, lack of healthcare and other human rights violations.
And these overcrowded facilities are also, of course, at **** risk of being overrun with COVID-19.
So, we call for a moratorium on all interceptions and returns to Libya in accordance with our recently published guidelines on COVID-19 and migrants, which you can find on our website.
We reiterate the States must always comply with their obligations under international human rights and refugee law.
And despite COVID-19, search and rescue operations should be maintained and swift disembarkation ensured in a port of safety while ensuring compatibility with public health measures, including quarantines, etcetera.
Thank you very much, Rupert.
Charlie, you wanted to complete to complement this with something on your side.
You, you have the floor.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Good morning, everybody.
UNHCR reiterates these calls from OHCHR, particularly in as much as the parts that relate to refugees, many of whom are also making these journeys.
In addition to the migrants who are leaving Libya by boat.
We have seen an increase in boat departures in recent weeks and that's due to a number of factors, in part that improved weather conditions, but also the the deteriorating security situation due to the ongoing conflict, but also the new ****** that is being posed by COVID-19.
And we've spoken before about the the difficulties there with Libya's health infrastructure to be adequately prepared to meet the needs should there be an outbreak, a rapid outbreak in the country.
So all this is an extremely challenging situation inside Libya.
UNHCR reiterates that no refugee or migrant should be returned to Libya after being rescued at sea.
And that's due to the ongoing conflict, the widespread human rights violations, the routine use of arbitrary detention.
But it's important to note the the use of arbitrary detention for rescued refugees and migrants is only one aspect of that.
Even if the detention system was to be stopped tomorrow, the conditions in Libya would still not be appropriate for people to be to be returned.
So with that in mind, no, Libya cannot be considered to have a safe port for disembarkation and not least because we have seen at times ports being targeted for attack.
UNHCR reiterates our call on states not to delay or hesitate in responding to distress calls and to uphold their obligations under international law.
That should be followed by a prompt and timely disembarkation, with states implementing quarantine measures and and screening measures as part of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those prevention measures are understandable, but nevertheless, people still need to be able to access their fundamental human right to seek asylum, and that should be followed by European solidarity with those states at the forefront of receiving arrivals by having a fair and just distribution of those refugees afterwards.
And lastly, we want to reiterate that NGOs have played a critical role in saving lives at sea on the Central Mediterranean and humanitarian efforts should not be criminalised or or or penalised.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Charlie, and thank Rupert.
On this subject.
I'm looking at the list of possible questions.
I don't see any for the moment.
Oh, yes, there is one.
Katrina.
Thank you, Alice.
Yes, thank you, Charlie, anyway for briefing us.
But it's a question to you, Alessandra.
OK.
It's related to one of the topics of Rupert.
OK.
Rupert is still on, on with us.
It is not for Rupert.
It's for you.
I mean, could you please convey a new demand to the Special envoy for Syria to, to organise a briefing with the Geneva Press Corps and also with Mrs Naja Trojdi?
That would be really nice if we could have one of them to brief us about the situation in Syria.
Thank you so much, Alessandro.
Thank you.
Not well taken.
So Rupert is still with us.
Charlie has more to brief about, but I just wanted to ask if there's any question to Rupert on this issue, the Mediterranean, I don't see any.
So thank you very much, Rupert and thanks for your patience this morning.
Charlie.
I'll get back to you and give you the flow for your two items.
Briefing items.
Hardly.
You're on.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Heavy flooding, conflict, a crippled economy, impending desert locust swarms and the exponential spread of COVID-19 are threatening the safety and welfare of Somalia's 2.6 million internally displaced people.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, fears these multiple compounding emergencies will lead to devastating consequences unless there is a strong and coordinated response from the international community, national and local Somali authorities and humanitarian actors to meet the massive humanitarian needs.
Since the start of this year, more than 220,000 Somalis have become internally displaced, including 137,000 due to conflict.
Natural and climate related disasters, including drought and the resulting lack of livelihoods, as well as floods are additional complex and interlinked drivers of displacement.
In South and central Somalia, flash floods and the beginnings of riverine flooding caused by the seasonal goo rains have already displaced an estimated 90,000, with additional displacement expected if current trends continue.
This year's rains give every indication that they could pose the same catastrophic ****** as the dare rains of last year, which led to more than 400,000 people being forced to flee their homes.
Swarms of devils at locusts also threatened to decimate crop yields and cause widespread food shortages after the goo rains.
Earlier this week, UNHCR and the Government of Somalia airlifted emergency assistance to help over 8000 people in Baidawa, Bad Haire and Kardo.
A second airlift delivering aid in Kardo, Bad Haire, Bella Twain and Berdalay is set to take place as is set to take place today, with UNHCR assistance expected to reach a total of 37,000 individuals.
In March and April, armed operations against Al Shabaab resumed in Lower Shabel, resulting in more than 50,000 people being forced to flee their homes.
Communities were directly exposed to crossfire and mortar attacks in their villages and roadside explosions during their flight.
Recruitment of children, gender based violence including **** and arbitrary arrest were also reported in Ghetto Jubilant state fighting between various parties to the conflict also forced an estimated 40,000 people to flee their homes in Bel Ed Harwar in early March.
UNHCR believes the humanitarian situation will worsen as COVID-19 further spreads.
Most of the 2.6 million ID PS in Somalia live in overcrowded settlements and many, especially those newly displaced, live in makeshift shelters made of plastic bags, cardboards and sticks.
Physical and social distancing is close to impossible and there is scarcely enough clean water for drinking, let alone hand washing.
Conditions are ripe for widespread viral transmission.
UNHCR urges the international community to come forward with further funding for humanitarian agencies and the government of Somalia in this time of crisis.
And I'll leave it there.
Thank you very much, Charlie.
Let me see if there are questions for you on this particular subject.
Lisa wants to ask you a question.
Go ahead.
Lisa.
Yeah.
Hi.
I was.
Hi.
I was searching for my hand to raise.
I couldn't find it.
It's up.
Yep.
Good.
Good morning, Charlie.
I hope you're doing well.
I have a couple of questions on how serious is the, the, the swarm of locust in Somalia and is any spraying going on?
Has any money been actually allocated for that purpose?
And then the situation you outlined in Somalia sounds pretty desperate.
And I'm wondering whether there have been a lot of refugee returns from Kenya or in previous months.
Is that still going on?
Is that something that you recommend?
Or do you think that refugee returns is something that should not be occurring at this particular time?
Thank you, Charlie.
Thanks, Lisa.
I mean, we've seen these local swarms wreak havoc across different parts of East Africa and they've had a severe impact on people's abilities to grow crops.
Our concern is that the impact of these locus swarms could be further compounded by the effects of COVID-19 with the restrictions on on movement that we're seeing and other preventative measures, this is having a a significant impact on people's livelihoods.
People are are seeing job losses as businesses are are forced to close and the people are losing their incomes as a result.
And at the same time we're seeing food prices rise.
So all of these things together and particularly with the other things we mentioned with regards to the floods, the ongoing violence as well could lead to a perfect storm with potentially devastating consequences for for these internally displaced people in Somalia.
With with regards to the to the returns, you know, many countries have implemented these measures to reduce movement.
We have seen places close borders.
We do still see small numbers of returns to to Somalia, but those figures are much fewer than we were seeing before the COVID pandemic.
Thank you.
Thank you, Charlie.
That was the only question for the moment asked.
So you have another point on Easter Congo.
Go ahead, please.
Thank you, Alexander.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee agency is alarmed that an ongoing surge in violent attacks on local populations in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in just two months.
UNHCR remains concerned at the shrinking space for humanitarian work as attacks continue to hamper our ability to reach those in dire need of assistance.
UNHCR is calling on all sides involved in the conflict to respect civilian lives and humanitarian work.
Violence has surged since mid March as the number of counter attacks by armed groups have multiplied.
And in Aturi province, UNHCR and it's partners have recorded more than 3000 serious human rights violations in Jugu territory in the last 60 days, arising from almost 50 attacks against the local population.
On average, everyday displaced people have reported acts of extreme violence, with at least 274 civilians killed with weapons such as machetes.
More than 140 women were raped and almost 8000 houses set on fire.
The vast majority of those displaced are women and children, many of whom are now living under crowded circumstances with host families from the community.
Others are sleeping in the open or in public buildings such as schools, which are currently not in use due to COVID-19 measures.
Both the displaced people and their hosts have been rendered vulnerable by these repetitive attacks, counter attacks and continued violence.
Some displaced who have dared to return home become targeted again as the attacks and threats from armed groups continue.
Humanitarian access to Jugu in Mahagi territories are heavily restricted.
The main roads connecting the province's capital Buniya with Jugu territory was fully closed for almost 3 weeks in April and remains too insecure to allow humanitarian access.
UNHCR is concerned for the safety of the displaced people and fears that the lack of humanitarian assistance will have a huge impact as income opportunities have been reduced with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hunger is also a real risk with food prices increasing due to limited supply in both territories.
UNHCR and it's partners are working to assist with relief supplies, however funding shortages are affecting our ability to meet the most basic needs of the displaced populations.
I'll leave it there.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
On for this second item.
Charlie, let me see.
I have to go back to my list.
I don't see any hand raise.
Yes, it's Lisa again.
Lisa, I have a problem finding my hand.
Charlie, these people who have been displaced, I mean, where where have they gone?
Are there organised camps where they go and who's there to help them?
Do they have any protection in the camps?
Are are they also vulnerable to ongoing attacks?
Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa.
There's no one answer to this.
We're seeing different things happening in different circumstances.
Some people are being forced to flee and are then being taken in by by host communities.
But that in turn is also making the social distancing required to to prevent the spread of COVID-19 extremely difficult.
As we see many people living inside shelters, others are being forced to, to sleep wherever they can find shelter, whether that being in community buildings that are not currently in use or out in the open.
And this again places them vulnerable to, to possible further attacks, vulnerable to the elements and with little protection in terms of, of preventing the spread of, of COVID-19.
There are also some IDP sites, but again, the the challenges there remain significant or almost across the board on every indicator.
A massive effort is needed to improve conditions, whether that be how much clean water is being provided, sanitation facilities, access to healthcare.
There's a real and urgent need to provide support to people in in increasingly dire situations.
Thank you very much.
Next question is from Gabriella.
Yes, Alessandra, thank you.
But is is the question is for you?
And if Christian is all is there.
But OK, so Christian, Christian is connected.
He had to leave the studio because The Who studio, but he has connected with the phone.
So hopefully afterwards we will be able to talk to him.
But Gabriella, there is Nico, you must have something else open.
But I have on my list for Christian already.
Shame.
Shane.
Catherine.
Yeah.
Jamil, Sorry if I have a question for you, Gabriella.
We'll ask you to wait.
So we will try.
Let me see if I have any other question for Charlie.
But I don't see any.
There's a lot of noise on the line.
Could you please mute your mic?
Can Gabriella me muted?
We will go to the question for for Christian in a second.
I don't see other questions for CC.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having sent all to your notes.
And so now Christian has connected on his cell phone.
So we'll go to him just before.
While we are muting to him, I just would like to remind you that the Secretary General has released today a global appeal to address and counter COVID-19 related hate speech.
We've sent it to you.
The Secretary General said that we must act now to strengthen the immunity of our society against the virus of hate.
That's why he's appealing today for an all out effort to end hate speech globally.
He made several appeals to political leaders, educational institutions, the media, civil society, and then everyone to stand up against hate, treat each other with dignity, and take every opportunity to spread, to spread kindness.
And you have the full appeal in your mailbox.
So I hope now we have Christian on the line because there are quite a few questions.
Christian, can you hear me?
I can't see you, but hopefully you are online.
I can hear you and I can see you, but I'm hiding away.
It's OK.
It's OK.
I think the journalist will not mind.
They have questions for you.
So I will take the the list I had before.
So, Shane, you are the person on the list.
Can you, Christian, where are your papers?
We have a lot of noise in the in the mic.
Shane, you can go ahead and ask you a question to Christian.
Thank you.
OK, Thank you, Alexandra Christian, this is Shane from China Central Television, CCTV.
My questions about the virus origins, so many have a question about this topic and my questions about there have been some new findings in France, in some other parts of the world and they have been earlier cases confirmed or positive.
So have you has WHO ever considered the possibility that the virus or the outbreak started somewhere else rather than China beginning?
So it emerged maybe from some other parts of the world and then transferred to and and then to China.
Is that the possibility?
Have you considered that?
OK Christian.
Thank you, Shane.
So all evidence at this point points into the area of Wuhan and as we heard before in the briefing to the market audience surrounding or the areas or brought also possibly into the market by an employee and infected otherwise.
But there's no further evidence in a in a different direction now.
And as you know, so this is a very, and Maria has explained this many times, the way they, they look at the sequences of the virus, this tells the scientist how many times it mutated, where it mutated from.
The mutation is a normal scenario.
And in 99% it's it, it means nothing, as Doctor Benenberg said before, meaning it's a mutation arrangement, which doesn't change anything.
So again, all these, all these scientific findings have not pointed into any other direction right now.
That's what we know so far on the part of other countries.
It would be a normal procedure now for countries from health systems for doctors for, for laboratories to start looking into cases that they have been defined as suspicious or as atypical at the time when they arouse anytime in the last half year, especially before coronavirus slash COVID-19 was was identified and named.
Because again, this is normal scientific and medical practise to to put such findings on hold and retest them and re look at them when you have new evidence, new information and a new scenario.
But no, it's not like on a daily basis now countries are pouring in and reporting.
This will be something for the weeks to come when labs have time and space to, to look into their own scenarios over.
Thank you, Christian.
I think Shane would like to deepen this.
Shane yeah, I have a follow up, a quick follow up.
Thank you, Alexandra.
So Christian, before in the last press briefing, you also mentioned that because the France 1 maybe someone from Wuhan travelled to France.
But when we saw some interviews of of this guy and he said he has no connections or travel histories to China or some connections to Chinese.
So have you, is it possible?
And it started really in December.
And there's some other sports athletes from Italy saying that they will confirm that they, they, they, they assume that they have the disease because they went to, to attend the, to attend the sport, a military sports meeting, something like that.
So is it possible that they got this virus somewhere else rather than so what's your confirmed evidence that it started from Wuhan or it's not from someone, some, somewhere else?
Could you elaborate that a little bit?
Thank you.
You have to be careful with the Shane.
Thank you Shane, but you have to be careful with the word they confirmed because confirmed in our of course in our in our area.
So I typically or laboratory confirmed.
OK, one at the time, please.
Yeah, go ahead, Chris.
So yeah, so careful with the word confirmed.
You see a lot of people coming out now and I personally received 1020 emails a day from people telling me, oh, I was travelling here, I was travelling there and I had AI had these and these symptoms that that tells me it was this and this.
No, careful with misinformation and over eagerness of information right now.
OK, so let's, let's take this step by step and let's the scientists look into this not not anybody else.
So again, what I tried to explain from the sequencing and the looking into sequences and the DNA of the, of the, of the virus.
Well, what the scientists tell us, everything points at the origin in and around Wuhan.
Let's make it that easy, OK?
Just because person X hasn't travelled or has not had a contact with a person directly travelling from China doesn't mean anything at this right moment.
Now if and there's a big capital if here, if the virus has been circulating already unknowingly for a while and we don't know what the while is, then it is of course possible that there's a secondary infection 1/3 the tertiary infection whatever the main infection sources, 50% of infection happens through surfaces, right?
So that person doesn't have needed to be travelling again.
The two peoples confronted by the CDC in California having died in the in the beginning of of January, February, sorry infection possibly mid and January have not had any travel history so.
Let's not get over the excited that this is just a very possible scenario.
It the the one thing it tells us for sure is that it looks like and the French case still has to be confirmed to my knowledge that it is quite possible that the virus has been going around undetected for a while, which is also normal if you don't know what you're looking for and during a heavy cold season at that time, a heavy winter cold season in in China and that there's good time to look into it.
We're asking member states to look into their inconclusive finding and their old labyrinth reports to give us a better picture over Thank you Christian.
So on my list I had Catherine Jamil.
Catherine, you still have your question for Christian or it's fine, One is always in for COVID-19.
I would like to, to know how the international agencies that are sending humanitarian staff to the fields, how do they organise we've because we've seen that a couple cases, particularly in Mali have been imported cases by humanitarian staff that arrived to Mali.
So I would like to know if there's a special procedure for humanitarian staff that are going to the field anywhere in the world.
Are they tested before leaving to, to take over their, their position?
And my other question is regarding the 73rd session.
I heard that you say that.
Could you please elaborate a little bit more on the part that is going to take place in November?
Thank you, Christian.
Christian, I don't know if you want to answer your the first question.
I see Yance is also connected just in case he wants to add anything.
But maybe you can start Christian.
Yeah, let me start.
So for the Mali part, I am not aware of that scenario.
I'm not even sure this is a confirmed scenario.
Again, something told, but that's that I don't know in general, all hygiene and personal protection and safety issues apply to everyone in the same manner when you should be having when personal protection, you should not be infectious of course, yourself and so on and so forth.
So there's this is all the the normal procedures.
Very often we're lucky to be able to use the the logistics network of WFP and I don't know if Elizabeth is still on and can could speak to this, but this is This is of course great because let's not forget that these days and times, because of so many travel restrictions around the world, the normal the use of normal transport means is not always possible.
Hence, luckily, the something like the solidarity flights and other means to transport logistics and equipment around the world.
On Health Assembly 73, the the November is not as a as a date confirmed point is when and if the situation allows, the full WJ 73 should be held this year, still in coordination with all the member states.
Of course, when this is possible and when of course the corona situation, the COVID scenario allows this.
In what shape or form or what exact time is not at all clear yet and will also be a part, most likely a of the discussion during the assembly.
Now the two days and then depending on the situation.
Thank you, Christian.
I just wanted to tell Elizabeth and Jens, if you want to complete the answer, just raise your hand for me so that I know that I can give you the floor.
Yes, Elizabeth, I see your face.
You want to say something about that?
Go ahead.
Yes, I we were talking about the travel of Earth workers or humanitarian workers.
So WFP provide this air passenger service when commercial flights are not available.
And I can tell you that now that every passenger is checked, I mean they there are sanitation measures and temperature taking before a passenger humanitarian worker can board.
Regarding, regarding the medical evacuation and the the health facilities for humanitarian workers, WFP put in place the six regional hubs with health HealthPartners handling medical equipment, management and staffing.
Each will serve the needs of humanitarian and health staff in that in the region with dedicated medical facility, we have two air ambulances and two Rd ambulances to safely move and care for COVID-19 patient.
So WFE is establishing these services in Accra, in Addis Ababa and expect them to be up and running by mid-May and we are grateful to the government of Ethiopia and Ghana for their support.
Thank you, Elizabeth, just not going because I am faithful to my list.
Asking Jamil if he still has the question for Christian.
Otherwise if I don't see you asking for the floor, Jamil, I will go to the next question.
Yes, I have, yes, go ahead.
Christian is on the line and the other.
Hi Christian, very quick question in regarding what Paula said in the beginning mentioning the Amazon and Manaus.
I have put this question already to at the briefing with Doctor Chedros.
The answer was very vague and I just want to point out that the action that was done by the indigenous groups were supported.
These actions were supported by the same singers that took part on your live day in support of Double HO, etcetera, with with all those singers including Paul McCartney and others.
So it's not something that was something minor.
It was a very big initiative basically on one of the hot spots of the world today regarding the ******.
We would like to have a proper answer regarding the Amazon, the indigenous groups and obviously the situation regarding the the, the lack of response of the Brazilian government.
Thank you, Christian, just one second.
He's been a muted.
Christian, are you on the line with us?
I don't know if I am.
Yes, I am now we can hear you.
We can hear you.
Go ahead.
OK.
So thank you, Jamil for this.
What is also partly new information for me.
Great on I don't have AI don't have an answer, of course, for you now, other than what I said before.
It's a it's a very it's clear that this is a very vulnerable population in in many, in many regards.
We know that any, any disease which is brought into indigenous isolated living populations is a huge challenge for them and is to be handled very, very carefully.
So yes, that is a huge issue.
But I don't have anything clearer now, but I'll hand this forward to see if we can get anything more.
Thank you.
Thank you, Christian.
So next question is from Gabriela, if I'm still on.
I don't know, just you are.
Oh, no, now you're not anymore.
Sorry.
You wanted to add something.
Maybe our colleagues can unmute you before we go to Gabriella.
Yes, go ahead.
Yes.
So of course, the the the office in the Americas, the regional office would be the main lead for this.
The office in in Washington.
Paho WHO?
Cheers.
OK, Gabriella.
Gabriella.
I think you need, yes, so much.
OK, So if there are so many doubts about the region of the virus, this is for Christian.
Don't you think that there should be a transparent, independent, thorough investigation in and around Wuhan?
Christian, just one second.
We need to unmute you.
It was said.
Yeah, Thank you, Gabriella.
Yeah, so many doubts.
I wouldn't call it.
What was said is it seems very clear where it's coming from with the area.
But whether it was the bat infecting an animal, the animal in the market and then infecting people or whether a person was infected and then being going into the market a handler or a market person or a customer and therefore it's spreading it there.
That's not quite clear.
So the exact origin, but still the area is is is pretty much located where where it just sort of yes, the and we've been saying at every single location the the looking back into the origin will be of utmost important for the understanding of the virus for trying to prevent further future waves coming from a similar source.
This is of importance and there will be definitely a time everybody's is ready to support and we'll be we'll be happy to to lead or participate in whatever sort of investigation or you call it or whatever sort of mission.
And this is possible necessary.
As Doctor Benemburich also said, good part of this work is, is, is a data, looking into data and looking into science reports.
So one doesn't necessarily immediately look at the the floors in the market because that's that might be a different scenario now than it was six months ago.
So but it's the looking into the origin is important.
Thank you very much, Laurent.
Last question.
I don't see any more.
Yeah, that's a follow up for Elizabeth.
Oh, OK.
After watching Elizabeth, I think let me see.
Yeah, she's still on.
Go ahead, Elizabeth.
He listened to you regarding the passenger air bridge from Geneva via Rome.
So Amir, your colleague said that the solution had been found for the the commercial flights to East Africa, but there were some discussions ongoing for West Africa.
So just wanted to check where you stand on that.
Elizabeth, unfortunately, so far that I have no information regarding this air bridge from Geneva, Roman and, and West Africa.
And so I will come back to you as soon as I get more information.
I will ask, but if I have not received some, it means that it's still on hold.
Thank you.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
And as I say, I should never say last questions because there are more here, I think for therefore Christian Ahmad.
Hello, good morning, good morning.
Hi, Chris.
I'd like to to go back again, Chris, to this point of the origin of the virus.
Last press conference, Doctor Maria Venkerkov, she said that there is a discussion with the Chinese authorities to look for this story of the origin of the virus.
My question and if you can be clear would be will be great.
My question is, is there is a request from The Who to have access, for example, to the Wuhan lab or or which plan exactly WHWHO have to investigate the origin of the virus?
Thank you, Christian.
Just one second.
We need to unmute.
Can a Christian be unmuted, please?
We don't have you on the line, Christian.
Now you're.
Oh, you've come and gone.
Sorry.
Yes.
Now you're on.
Please go ahead.
On the phone is a difficult system, so I can't be very specific there.
It was said many times and, and just also before this, looking back into the origin or investigation, whatever the word you want to choose is a multifaceted thing.
It's looking into many, many science reports, speaking to many people looking maybe also in the in the place of the origin and trying to identify sequencing, also looking at the sequences of the of the identified virus, but many, many different parts of it and lots of it can be done.
And yes, WHO would would, is, is it's necessary to to to look into the origin.
That was said always for for every part of the of the puzzle in, in specifics.
When and how this will be able to happen depends on many, many factors, but we're looking forward to when it will happen over.
Thank you.
Gabriela, you have a follow up.
Yes, Well, actually it's not the follow up.
That's another question.
And I have a question for you, Alessandra as well.
Go ahead.
OK, So I would like to know if regardless of what China answers, Doctor Tedros is going to invite Taiwan to the World Health Assembly as an observer, especially due the situation right now and the WH OS neutrality.
So that is one question.
And then I have a question for Alexandra.
Thank you.
Can you ask it so we can answer and then we go back?
When are we coming back?
I mean, I want to applaud round of applause to you and your patients really.
But I, I mean, we can come back.
I mean, we can be in the rack room 19, I don't know, with three metres of distance or something like that.
But when are we coming back?
OK, question.
OK, I'll let Christian start and then I'll hopefully finish on that note.
Christian, there are many empty rooms now in the palace.
Or maybe each journalist could sit in one room so that that might be a good thing.
No, that wasn't my question.
Look, Gabriella, I actually think before we spent more than half an hour with our legal counsel here to try to explain this and try to explain exactly what the limitations and what the, what the, what the issues are.
That question which you just asked me now has been asked 2 times even before.
I don't know what to add anymore because we, we try every to make it as clear as possible what the limitations are.
The wha, the member states are the ones to invite to extend or issue the invitation or request the DG to issue the invitation.
This was the whole point of the briefing this morning.
So the WHA, the member states, 194 member states have to decide whether either to invite any party to be a member or to request the DG to issue the invitation.
It is up to them.
Out of 194 members, 6, as the Steve Solomon pointed out, have asked for adding Taiwan as an observer.
Make the count.
I can't explain it more.
Thank you.
I think it's pretty clear.
Thank you very much.
So on my side, to answer Gabriella's question, I'm afraid I have to still say I don't have a final date for that.
What I can tell you is that first of all, there are extensive discussions not only with our medical service but also with security with WHO.
We're looking at their guidance.
We're looking at the guidance of the host country.
There are several bodies who are coming together now to answer right your questions.
What we think will happen, and again, this is not a definite answer, is that starting from next week, we will have the few first people coming to the palate to prepare the palate to welcome again a large number of people.
But that large number of people will arrive, you know, progressive phased way.
And this is what we are discussing and also for what concerns.
And I hope I'll, I'll have an answer for you soon and for you and for all of us.
As, as you said, I mean, it's, it's a, it's a general question that is coming from many, many people.
What I can tell you also on the media side is that for the moment, we are continuing with this virtual briefings.
We will see when we are sure what's going to happen with the palace, how to continue this.
Maybe we will go for an hybrid format, I don't know yet, but this is also something that we are going to discuss with our colleagues, spokespersons and we have a meeting scheduled already to discuss this before the end of May.
So these are the the two issues.
I just wanted to remind everybody that journalists can still access.
You're probably the only one category for which we have kept an Open Access to the pilot.
It's just a question of big numbers.
But as you know, it's not more than 50 journalists at the pilot at the same time, same given time.
But that has never been happening in these months.
So you can always go back to the office because we know that you have the your equipment to work.
And so the director general has granted access to the journalists with no limitations.
If it's not the number, but it's a large number for you to be able to continue working and spreading the voice of and information about our our activities.
So I'll keep you posted on that.
Thank you very much.
I don't see any other requests for the floor.
I would like to just close this very long briefing by reminding you that you still have a couple of hours, in fact 32 hours and a half to watch the movie unseen Enemy that we have made available to you in the framework of a first.
It's the first time we do this joint senior new with London and Brussels.
The movie Unseen Enemy on pandemics is very timely, will be visible until three O clock and the O clock seat here at time you will be able to watch them.
Then at three O clock, we will connect on our platform to discuss this issue and the issue of pandemics and what we've learned so far from COVID-19 with Janet Tobias, who's the director, the film director of Unseen Enemy Doctor Sylvie Bryant, director of the global infectious hazard hazard preparedness of the World Health Organisation, Peggy Hicks, director of the division for thematic activities, special procedures and the right of to development of OHCHR.
And all this will be moderated by real.
So I thank you very much for joining you this afternoon.
Thank you for being with us with on the briefing and born we can to everyone.
Oh, sorry, sorry.
Before I close, I see Rupert S race his end.
Rupert, you want to say something before we close?
Yes, I should just clarify.
Peggy Hicks isn't able to do that.
So she's been replaced by one of her deputies called Todd Howland.
Thank you very much.
She's a very experienced senior staff member.
So thank you very much for correcting us on this.
And just to say, I did try and put a message on the chat, but I don't think it worked.
It did.
It did.
It did.
OK.
Yeah.
But maybe you want to repeat this just to clarify.
Yeah, it's in response to the question about where ISIL is.
So they're believed to have sleeper cells in various parts of the country, in the east, in Derozoa and in Osaka governorates in the north, in Raqqqa, in the South, in Daraa, as mentioned earlier, and also in some desert areas as well.
So in in various parts of the country, which obviously is is worrying.
Thank you very much for these details and thank you for correcting me on the participation of OHCHR.
But we're very happy to host the other, the other colleague of OHCHR.
So thank you very much.
Hope to see you this afternoon at 3:00 PM for the debate and have a nice weekend.
Goodbye.