UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 12 May 2020

The United Nations Office at Geneva

Multimedia Newsroom

Edited News Press Conferences Statements Images B-roll Conferences Upcoming All Stories

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 12 May 2020

1:45:40

MP4

952.3 MB

12-05-2020

Press Conferences | UNHCR , OCHA , WHO , UNOG , WFP , UNCTAD , ILO , WMO

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 12 May 2020

ENG

The topics addressed were COVID-19, violence in Nigeria, situation in Ukraine, and a global seasonal climate update.

COVID-19: socioeconomic impact on Middle East and North Africa

Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that the WFP estimated that in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, in addition to the previously food insecure people, about 6.7 million people could soon be struggling to feed themselves due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. With the extra 6.7 million people, the estimated total number of food insecure people in the region would rise to 47.6 million people. With little to no savings, no unemployment insurance, and reduced food subsidies, people who engaged in subsistence or informal work to support their families could not endure sustained lockdowns.

Ms. Byrs stressed that it was vital that WFP maintain its food assistance to more than 23 million people in the MENA region at a time when the pandemic was threatening to push even more people into hunger.

After years of conflict, political instability and economic troubles, many countries in the MENA region were ill-equipped to deal with the pandemic and its impact. Most countries in the region were food-importing countries, which made them vulnerable to trade restrictions and border closures. Nearly 3.8 million children in 11 countries were no longer receiving WFP school meals following school closures across the region. Ms. Byrs informed that the WFP was providing food assistance to more than 23 million people in the Middle East and North Africa, including 12 million people in hunger-stricken Yemen as well as more than four million people in Syria. Ms. Byrs also said that the pandemic had led to a sharp increase in the price of standard food baskets in Sudan, Syria and Yemen, among other places.

In 2020, the WFP needed USD 12 billion to feed some 100 million people around the world, said Ms. Byrs in a response to a question. Ms. Byrs explained that the food prices in the region were increasing because of several factors, including conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, a disrupted supply chain, currency devaluation and steady inflation.

Responding to another question, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that in 2019, the humanitarian response plan for Yemen had required USD 4.19 billion and received $3.06 billion in funding, or 86 percent. Of that, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had been the largest donor providing USD 1 billion, or 28 per cent of received funding.

COVID19: questions and answers

Responding to questions, Dr. Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the outbreak in Africa was definitely on the rise. There were certain countries which had showed that early intervention, including testing and contact tracing, made a difference. The Americas were driving the pandemic at the moment; they were the current epicentre. Definite answers on what went wrong or right could not be provided before the crisis was over.

Dr. Harris said that the work to develop a vaccine was going on at a very fast rate, faster than ever in history, but coronaviruses were a tricky group of viruses, and caution was of order. Answering other questions, Dr. Harris said that for the time being, WHO briefings were planned to continue on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the media would be informed of any changes; she emphasized, once again, the importance of testing; and she stressed that the World Health Assembly was an assembly of Member States, who were in charge of inviting participants to the event.

In a response to a further question, Dr. Harris said that one had to assume that the virus could be present on any surface that many people touched, as the virus could survive on surfaces from hours to days. That was why it was critical to frequently wash or disinfect hands. There was currently no treatment of which one could confidently say that it could stop and kill the virus. Countries around the world needed to continue implementing a comprehensive set of measures, including testing, contact tracing, isolation, and keeping an eye on the overall situation.

On the issue of after-crisis review, Dr. Harris said that such reviews were conducted after every significant outbreak. It was a very much independent process, including interviews with all those involved, and producing lessons learned. On masks, Dr. Harris said that face covering should primarily be used by sick people to protect others from themselves; medical masks should primarily be used to medical personnel. Dr. Harris said she would subsequently share the information on a temperature which was able of killing the virus in test labs.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service, added that a UN Policy Brief on “COVID-19 and the Need for Action on Mental Health” was expected to be launched by the UN Secretary-General on Wednesday, 13 May at 11 p.m. New York time (Thursday, 14 May at 5 a.m. Geneva time). The report had been discussed at today’s advanced press briefing by WHO; the content of the briefing, the brief and related content were under strict embargo until the time indicated above.

Situation in Ukraine

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that humanitarians were concerned that the contact line in Ukraine had remained closed since 21 March. No one, including humanitarian personnel, was currently able to cross the line, which normally saw 900,000 crossings per month. This closure particularly affected the elderly people in the non-government controlled areas (NGCA) who depended on pensions and health care from the government-controlled areas. The closure limited ability to organize humanitarian convoys, and only two such convoys had crossed into Donetsk since the beginning of the crisis. Humanitarian agencies continued their operations on both sides of the contact line, helping some two million people in the region, and should be able to cover the needs until the end of May.

Answering to questions, Mr. Laerke said that the lock downs mainly impacted elderly people in the NGCA, who could not access normal services and collect their pensions. Across Ukraine there were close to 16,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases; for the two non-government controlled areas in the east, figures received from health authorities spoke of 232 cases in Luhansk NGCA, and of 184 cases in Donetsk NGCA.

Violence in Nigeria

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that ongoing violence in parts of north-western Nigeria forced an estimated 23,000 people to seek safety and security in Niger last month. That took the total number of refugees fleeing that part of Nigeria to take sanctuary in neighbouring Niger to more than 60,000 since the first influx, in April 2019. Since April 2019, people had fled relentless attacks by armed groups in the Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina states of Nigeria. Most had found refuge in Niger’s Maradi region Fearing and fleeing the same insecurity in the border areas, an additional 19,000 Niger nationals had become displaced inside their own country.

UNHCR was concerned about deteriorating security inside Nigeria and the risk of armed incursions spilling over into Niger. The latest influx of refugees, mainly desperate women and children, followed attacks in Nigeria’s Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara states during the month of April. UNHCR had been present at the onset, and the emergency response focused on protection and life-saving activities, including registration, protection and border monitoring, education, health, shelter as well as water and sanitation. The violence was not directly linked to armed groups operating in the Lake Chad and in the Sahel, explained Mr. Baloch.

The full press statement can be found here.

Global seasonal climate update

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that the WMO had issued a new global seasonal climate update for May, June and July. Warmer-than-average temperatures were expected on land because of the warmer-than-average sea temperatures. Both the El Niño Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole had been in a neutral phase during January-February-March 2020. April 2020 in Europe tied as the warmest April on record with April 2016, but in 2016 there had been a strong El Niño, stressed Ms. Nullis. The update was in the preoperational phase at the moment, it was not a forecast, but was meant to provide guidance to the governments.

Responding to a series of questions, Ms. Nullis said that the deforestation in the Amazon and other parts of the world was concerning and formed part of a much bigger picture. We were going to see more extreme weather, some of which was due to natural variability, but most of it was related to the climate change. The Atlantic hurricane season was coming up. Strong multi-hazard early warning systems were very much needed. It was not yet possible to say whether the climate change would make El Niño phenomena more frequent.

Full press release can be read here.

Geneva announcements

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed about a new report entitled How Covid-19 is changing the world: a statistical perspective, which would be published on 13 May at 11 am Geneva time, by 36 international agencies which had replied positively to the call made by UNCTAD to compile important stats on the impact of COVID-19 in their respective fields of work. Those organizations included, among others: WTO, UNICEF, OCHA, UNHCR, IOM, but also the UN World Tourism Organization, OECD, WHO, European Central Bank, World Bank and the IMF. The purpose of the report was to put facts and figures on the table of policy makers.

Rosalind Yarde, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), informed about an ILO virtual press conference on 14 May at 2 p.m. Geneva time on how gaps in social protection threatened COVID-19 recovery in developing countries. This new brief on the role of social protection in addressing the consequences of the COVID19 crisis would propose a number of measures both in short and long term, once the crisis is over. Shahrashoub Razavi, Director of ILO Social Protection Department, and experts from the region would be available to answer questions.

Teleprompter

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you very much for being with us this regular press briefing of the UN in Geneva.

I will immediately start with a few announcements.

The first one is from Angktad.

I can see that Katherine we saw is with us this morning.

Katherine, can you start with your announcement?

You have the floor Sure how COVID-19 is changing the world A statistical perspective.

Of course, a common like COVID-19 in perspective statistics is to have to be Duma Mata nukmeko di tresme another pony versal owner ponces organisation international positive more like you said, who completely statistically I found the measuring impact to you.

Check organisation, dispose the like and the revolution the the.

So this is your position and formation and communicate Catherine Don merci beaucoup mesh gracchita a large Rosalindi.

[Other language spoken]

The the ILO will be holding a virtual press conference on Thursday 14th of May at 1400 in Eva time that will focus on how gaps in social protection coverage threatened COVID-19 recovery in developing countries.

We'll have a new brief which examines the role of social protection in addressing the COVID-19 crisis in these countries and it's devastating consequences where there is an absence of well designed social protection systems.

It also outlines the impacts on vulnerable groups such as migrant workers.

The report proposes a number of measures, both for emergency response and longer term when the COVID-19 crisis is over, and these include healthcare, employment protection and basic income security.

It includes data and case studies from a number of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Arab states.

Two separate shorter briefs that we're publishing at the same time examine the role and importance of sickness benefits in the context of the current crisis.

To answer your questions, we'll have Shahra Razavi, who's the director of the ILO Social Protection Department, as well as experts from the regions who will be able to give you the picture of what's happening on the ground and where they are.

We'll be sending you the briefs in advance, under embargo by tomorrow, 13th May, and the embargo will rest until the end of the press conference.

That's 1500 Geneva time.

So for further information, you can contact me at yard@ilo.org or newsroom@ilo.org.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Rosalind.

And again, I asked the journalist if there's any question for Rosalind, for ILO.

I don't see any for the moment.

So thank you very much, Ros.

And let's go to the next speaker who is Elizabeth Beers.

Elizabeth to, good morning.

You wanted to speak about the Mina region.

I understand this morning, yes, good morning.

Today, WFP would like to draw your attention on this region.

We have been talking about East Africa, West Africa and now it's time to take a look at the MENA region.

WFP estimates that in the MENA region, an additional 6.7 million people would soon be struggling to feed themselves due to the socio economic impact of COVID-19.

With this extra point 7 million people, the estimated total number of food insecure people in the region will rise to more than 47 million people 47.6 precisely with little to no saving, no employment insurance, reduce food subsidies, people who engage in subsistence or informal work to support their families cannot endure sustained lockdowns.

It is vital that WFP maintain its food assistance to more than 23 million people in the MENA region.

At a time when the pandemics threatens to push even more people into hunger, many of the people receiving 53 million people receiving assistance, more than 2/3 are in Yemen and Syria.

The Middle East owes 20% of the global number of people suffering from acute food insecurity of of worse, it is on the IPC scale crisis phases 3 or above.

After years of conflict, political instability, economic troubles, many countries in the MENA region are ill equipped to deal with the pandemic and its impact.

Most country in the region are food importing countries spending around 110 billion of on food imports.

This make this country vulnerable to trade restriction and border closure.

Regarding children, it's a nearly 3.8 million children in 11 countries, 1,000,000 children in Syria alone which are we are not longer receiving WFP school meals following school closures across the region.

WFP is implementing alternative mechanism in Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

This includes providing take home relations in lieu of the meals, home delivery of food and provision of cash or vouchers.

What we are doing, WFP is providing assistance to 23 million people in the Middle East and North Africa, including 12 million people in Yemen, as well as more than 4 million people in Syria every month with food assistance.

I will also draw your attention on the food prices.

To give you examples, in Sudan, WFP recorded a sharp increase in the price of sorghum, which is the country main staple by 14% in March compared to February.

In Syria in March, the standard food basket was 12% higher than in April.

In April, sorry, compared to March.

And in Yemen, sauna, a food basket recorded the highest monthly increase at 19% compared to previous months.

I will say a word in French for our colleagues of US Radio Le Pam esteem person even about the difficulty socio economic the person he saw on Italian security.

Alimante Caron said see million the person press acceptable even essential pull upon the continuing assure les systems alimante acre the Ventra million the person don't set region Omomo who said Tondemi avex on cottage the consequence socio economic the person don't la poverty he don't la fun le Dutier de Savantra million the person called pharmacist the truth O Yemen and Siri total total de person the malnutrition you or human classification.

Mercy, switch back to English to give the floor to Lisa.

Thank you, Alessandra, nice to see you.

Nice to see you, Elizabeth.

[Other language spoken]

I'll be brief about them.

First, regarding children, do you have a global figure in the region of the increase in malnutrition rates because of the difficulties that exist?

And what are your concerns in terms of the number of children that may get ill or even die because they do not get the therapeutic feeding that they need?

And then do you have problems of access, especially in Yemen and Syria, which are still in hot wars?

And lastly, how much money do you need for your humanitarian operation?

It must be more than what you have because of the increase in the number of people that you need to feed.

[Other language spoken]

OK, regarding malnutrition rates, I do not have precise the figure with me right now.

I will come back to you if I will maybe start with the with the, the figures for the budget we need so far.

We need to to feed 100 million people in general, not only children.

WFP this year needs $12 billion just for the whole year as usual to provide assistance.

This includes of course the 1.9, the almost $2 billion we need in urgently to preposition food and to continue delivering food assistance.

What I can tell you is regarding children is that we are very concerned about the the the malnutrition rate increasing.

We will get some assessment findings I suppose next week or maybe this Friday I will be able to brief you on nutrition concern and on the data we have collected because there there will be a report issued very soon.

And now I think about nutrition in general.

So I will give you more detail and I'm sorry and I cannot provide those details now that because they will, we will have new figures.

We, we said that 370 million children are now missing out school meals.

We have children of course in Syria.

In Syria, we are feeding children through the school meal system to, to, to bring them to continue to keep them at school.

[Other language spoken]

So we do distribute food ration, home delivery rations and we, we are trying to find alternative system to continue to feed these children.

But I will come back to you with more precise details and in particular also about access in Yemen, as I do not have any information so far.

I know that we continue to provide food assistance to 12 million people.

And of course, the constraints related to travel restriction, supply chain bans or the restriction, sorry, and delays in delivering food are the same than in other all other countries at the moment.

But we continue to provide our food assistance in Yemen to 12 million people.

Thank you very much.

Elizabeth got the next question is from Katrina.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, good morning to all.

My question is regarding the rise from 6.7 million people of food insecure to 47 million people.

What is the time frame that you think will it would happen eventually?

Now my other question is maybe after the the questions on on MENA region, it's regarding the problem of food access in Europe.

We've seen recently in different newspapers what's happening in France, in Italy, in, in Switzerland, Geneva, that more and more people are looking for food and also about children.

I know that it's maybe a little bit more UNICEF question about the problem, problem of children, hungry children in Europe.

[Other language spoken]

But I just want to say that Marixi is also connected.

[Other language spoken]

I was thinking is asking Marixi to bring information on malnutrition.

She has better information than me.

But do you want to say something about Catherine's question?

Just say that she was asking for the about the time frame to reach this estimates and this estimates it until the end of the year, in the next in the next 6 months.

And regarding WFP, we have unfortunately we have no programme in Europe in in Italy and it's up to the government to take care of this issue France and Italy over.

[Other language spoken]

So I will ask Marixi if she has anything to compliment to what Elizabeth just said about children malnutrition.

If you can ask to be unmuted, I don't see unmuted now.

[Other language spoken]

Note that there's a global nutrition report that was just issued today.

Let me send you the link to that and I will also look more specifically at figures on hunger in Europe and send you whatever I can find.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Just I take this opportunity to inform you that Doctor Harris, Margaret Harris is also with us on the line.

We had not put her in the list, but she is with us.

In case you have a question also for WHO.

OK, so the next question for you, Elizabeth, is from Freddy, Freddy Mulongo, Mojo Freddy was available at all.

[Other language spoken]

We Freddy's concert says on Monday.

They have dollar, dollar distribution make such A to generality question question presses the Republic Democratic you can go.

I think this information provid April briefly there is a question from Emma.

[Other language spoken]

I was just, I was just hoping to get a little bit more context, Elizabeth, on the reasons for the increases in food prices.

In the Middle East, the those data that you gave, please could you elaborate a little bit more as to why food prices are being driven up in the region?

[Other language spoken]

Food, food prices are increasing in the region of of course, because of conflict, because of insecurity in some the in, in the countries I, I quoted, yes, I was, I was talking about student Yemen, Syria, Libya.

These are the, the, the country where the you.

We have seen the prices of most food commodities increase there.

You understand that there are price fluctuation due to this inflation, **** inflation rate they have as of February 2019 in not in particular in Iran, Turkey, they have this **** inflation rates which have been combined with currency devaluation.

I cannot tell you more because I'm not an expert.

But also in Sudan, we have recorded this sharp increase in, in the price of, of the main staple in circle and in, in, in Syria, we are seeing this rise months on months and it's 105% higher the price of the food basket than in April 2009.

And it's due to the, the, the economic background and insecurity and and conflict in those countries because when the supply chain is in disrupted, of course, the prices are going up.

[Other language spoken]

Where do you have to get access the most?

And where is it most difficult to get access?

And are you able to access the northern parts of Syria where there's been an upswing in fighting?

[Other language spoken]

Regarding Syria, we, we are providing assistance to 4.3 million every month.

I do not have latest update on Syria right now.

What I can do, I can tell you that we are providing assistance to people displaced which live in camps where we had an outbreak of where an outbreak of COVID-19 could be a disaster.

In March, WFP and partner staff provided life saving food assistance to 1.7 million people across Northwest Syria.

And it's vital to WFP to continue to deliver this food assistance via cross-border operation from Turkey.

That's why it's that's what I can tell you so far, the info I have in front of me from the end of March.

So I will ask for more new information, updated information and we'll come back to you.

[Other language spoken]

In while we are speaking about Syria, I would like to just let you know that as you may remember last week at the briefing you had requested yet again, I understand a briefing by the special employee for Syria Gaia operation and I am told by his office that they are working on a date for this briefing.

So hopefully it will happen soon.

I will possibly next week if, if everything goes well.

I have now a question for you, Elizabeth, from Gorgi.

[Other language spoken]

Bonjour Gorgi to Bonjour.

Concerned now?

[Other language spoken]

I'm trying to.

[Other language spoken]

Mercy Gorky registry is a bit.

Switch to English if you have any information on the general global humanitarian appear for the Western, for Western Africa.

Maybe you can take the floor after Elizabeth.

[Other language spoken]

This condom in Vance buttons a signal a avec socio economic Amelia nerf supplemented preposition problem distribution.

[Other language spoken]

The logistic.

All the 2.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry.

You're you have the floor, you're unmuted.

If you want to compliment Yens, you you have the floor.

Yens, you are unmuted.

We should be able to hear you.

OK, I see you unmuted, but we can't hear you, so maybe we'll give you a moment.

In the meantime, I don't understand why you should be able to speak there.

Anyway, Let's, let's go now to Catherine.

She has a question.

In the meantime, maybe we can check with Jens about his audio.

Catherine, you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

I mean, this is a question for all the humanitarian agencies and even for you, Alessandra.

We know that Saudi Arabia is facing a very difficult time.

Do you think that it will affect the donations so to the different humanitarian agencies?

So I don't know if we we have most of the agencies that can answer that question or you whatever.

[Other language spoken]

I don't have information about that, but maybe Elizabeth wants to say something and then we will try to get Yens on the line.

[Other language spoken]

The squad is a bit Catherine but a specific model is on the difficulty and you should be on now.

[Other language spoken]

Can you, can you repeat the question, please?

There were two questions before Gorky had asked about Western Africa.

It is a bit answered on the palm on the World Food programming side, but I don't know if you have any more general information about the the humanitarian appeal for West Africa.

And now Catherine asked about the fact that being that being Saudi Arabia in financial difficulty, she says, are we worried?

Are you worried that they will not continue funding humanitarian projects?

These are the two questions were on the table.

[Other language spoken]

I, I think on, on with West Africa, I've, I don't know really what what to say there.

There's not a West Africa appeal as such.

There are individual country appeals for the different countries.

So I would need to have a bit more specific questions as to which countries we are.

No, I think that was the question from Corky.

He was saying if there was anything specific in the appeal for West Africa.

So the answer is no, it's by country.

So that that I think you have answered.

[Other language spoken]

I mean we're, we owners ability or willingness or capacity to, to, to fund the humanitarian response really questions that should be addressed to to the donors.

Of course, we have seen Saudi Arabia in, in, in the context of Yemen being extremely generous in, in the very recent past with very large amounts of financing.

We continue to work with with with the country as we do with all donors.

We will have I think in a not too distant future some information about pledging initiatives coming up specifically for Yemen and we will, you know, of course inform you in due course when that is ready to to share.

[Other language spoken]

Jens, I think Catherine has a question for you.

[Other language spoken]

Just if yes, could be a little bit more precise and articulate some figures.

How much is Saudi Arabia giving for the donating for the moment?

[Other language spoken]

Right.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I apologise, I'm being caught a little bit off guard here.

So I, I was just, I will simply have to look into the financial tracking service to see what I can.

If you will bear with me, I will try to get that and send it to everyone.

Thank you very much.

And since you have a, a briefing, maybe you can stay on the line.

We will continue with you.

I just feel like before we, we went to, we go to another, another subject.

Just to remind you that the UN policy brief on COVID-19 and the need for action on mental health, one of the in the series of the policy briefs that the Secretary General is launching in this COVID times is expected to be launched by the UN Secretary General on Wednesday, 13th of May at 11:00 PM New York time, which is May 5:00 AM Geneva time.

You had a background briefing with WHO and we asked you, of course, to keep the embargo, but I just wanted to to remind you that this policy brief is coming out and on on at that time.

So watch out for it and you will be able to have information about the impact of COVID on this, on this, on people with this situation, mental health.

So now I would like to give the floor to Jens.

I think you had a briefing on Crane.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I'd yes, thank you very much, Alessandra.

And good morning everybody.

Just on, on, on the Saudi Arabia and the funding to Yemen, I can give you the overall figure for what we have on record for 2019 and that is a little bit over 1 billion U.S.

[Other language spoken]

That is for 2019, OK, for and and that is for our appeal which requested total a little more than four, no actually $4.2 billion.

So 1 billion of that was provided by by Soviet Arabia in 2019 and I will look into any current figures that we have for 2020.

Having said that, I worried about Ukraine very briefly.

I wanted to to raise that in Ukraine, the contact line between the government and non government controlled areas remains closed since the 21st of March as part of the COVID-19 lockdown in the country.

No one, including humanitarian personnel are currently available are currently able to physically cross the contact line where there is normally about 900,000 crossings registered every month.

This of course is having an impact on for example vulnerable elderly people living in non government controlled areas who are unable to access services, pensions and other social benefits in the government controlled part.

Some humanitarian exceptions have been made for crossings both ways.

325 people were granted such exemptions between the 21st of March and the end of April, but that, as I mentioned, is compared to 900,000 crossings normally every month.

This closure of the contact line has limited the ability to organise humanitarian convoys into non government controlled areas and only two UN organised convoys delivering COVID-19 related supplies have crossed into Donetsk since the beginning of the COVID crisis.

At the same time, the de facto authorities in Luhansk and the Government of Ukraine have recently approved deliveries of health supplies into the into Luhansk through one entry point is called Stanitia Luhanska, but that has to be done manually as the personal trucks are not allowed.

The planning of this manual movement is currently ongoing.

Humanitarian agencies continue their operations on both sides of the contact line with existing stockpiles targeting a total of some 2 million people.

However, the stocks, particularly in the non government controlled areas are expected to be exhausted by the end of the month of May and it's currently unclear how they may be restocked.

I will stop there, but I will send a bit more detail in my note after the briefing.

[Other language spoken]

And I already have a question from Lisa.

[Other language spoken]

Actually.

[Other language spoken]

I guess you didn't see my hand raised earlier.

And then I have questions for Yance.

[Other language spoken]

You were talking about the policy report that the Secretary General would issue on, on mental health.

Is he also giving a press conference or is he just issuing the report?

To the best of my knowledge is issuing the report.

So no press conference from him.

Not that they're not off for the moment, but I will inform you if it is the case.

[Other language spoken]

Now, yes, for you.

I have have a few questions please, because nobody's able to cross the contact line.

I was wondering about the specific impact on the people.

In eastern Ukraine, whether you you know about hunger going up and illnesses increasing and whether ***** is rising and then we haven't had it much any reporting effect on Ukraine.

Is the fighting still going on or, you know, sporadically or has it essentially ceased, especially since?

Yeah, that's the question.

And what do you know about COVID-19?

Any figures on that or whether this poses a problem there?

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

That's as, as you said yourself, it's been a while since we heard about Ukraine.

That's why I grabbed this opportunity because I have this situation report overnight that I will happily share with you all.

It does not talk about ongoing hostilities, so my impression is that that is not the major issue at the moment.

In the in eastern Ukraine, both the government controlled and non government controlled areas have have imposed lockdown measures, as we have seen anywhere else in the world in the context of COVID-19, which of course is having a particular impact as as I mentioned on vulnerable, vulnerable people.

[Other language spoken]

Elderly Ukraine as you know is a humanitarian situation with, with, with a particular caseload of people, elderly people who are who are very vulnerable because they cannot access their pensions or family support on on the on the government controlled side of the of the contact line.

So the main impact is really that that contact now line is now, to all intents and purposes, completely sealed off and they cannot cross in and in and out.

So the impact is, is on on on those people.

They cannot access their their, their normal services in terms of health going to to to medical facilities.

They cannot simply get the money in their hands that they need to buy, you know, everyday household items that that they that they need.

In terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, how that has impacted Ukraine.

The numbers that that we do have is that across Ukraine, there are 15,648 confirmed cases.

There are some 408 deaths as of as of yesterday in the two provinces or oblast as as they're called in Eastern Ukraine that we're talking about.

The numbers are a little bit more unclear, but what I what I do have is that in Luhansk, the non government controlled area, there are 232 confirmed cases.

And in Donetsk, again, the non government controlled areas there is 184, a total of 416 confirmed cases in the non government controlled parts of these of eastern Ukraine.

Jens, maybe if I may, I would like to also attract the attention of Lisa and the other journalist on a declaration from by the head of the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.

Mathilda Bogner is dated 8th of May and she also speak about casualties in civilian casualties in early May in Ukraine.

And there are quite a few details on this.

Lisa, if you want to have a look, it's on the website of the UN in Ukraine.

[Other language spoken]

There are none, So thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

If you can follow up with the various issues and I would like now to continue our briefing with the bar.

But before doing so, Catherine, I see you are still connected.

Catherine, we saw journalists are asking me if you can repeat the name of the person, the name and title of the person who will address the press in the event that you have announced, Please can you it's just.

No, yeah, but confirms the process in in, in preface, you know, only actor conference, the press, the different, the difference service, the press, the check organisation.

[Other language spoken]

So no press conferences, just the launch and they should receive the paper today.

OK, thank you very much.

So Babar, sorry, I'll come to you.

[Other language spoken]

Can you hear me very well?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Alessandra.

Good morning to all.

We're trying to highlight the situation in Nigeria this morning.

We're ongoing violence in parts of northwestern Nigeria have forced an estimated 23,000 people to seek safety in Niger last month in the month of April.

This takes the total number of refugees fleeing this part of Nigeria to take sanctuary in the neighbouring Niger to more than 60,000 since the first influx in April in 2019.

This is indeed a big jump in terms of Nigerian refugees arriving in Niger.

Since last year, people have fled relentless attacks by armed groups in Nigeria, Sokoto, Zamfara and Castina states.

Most have found refuge in Nigers Marathi region.

With this 20,000.

Now the number of Nigerian refugees in Niger has crossed 180,000.

Fearing and fleeing.

[Other language spoken]

UNICER and the UN refugee agency is concerned about the worsening security situation inside Nigeria and the risk of armed incursions which may spill over into Niger.

The latest influx of refugees, mainly desperate women and children, follows attacks in Nigeria's Katsina so Koto and Zamfara state during the month of April.

Several villages in the local government areas were attacked by the gunmen.

The deadliest attack claimed 47 lives in Kankara, the Musa and few other areas, which prompted air strikes by the Nigerian armed forces.

Those fleeing speak of extreme violence unleashed against civilians, murders, kidnappings for ransom, alleging and looting of villages.

Refugees from Nigeria are being allowed to seek protection in Nigeria despite the border closure measures due COVID-19.

New arrivals are in urgent need of water, food and access to health services as well as shelter and clothing because many of them had no time to pick up anything with them, just they ran for their lives trying to cross the the border.

Many have also been caught up in the clashes reported being blamed on farmers and herders of different ethnic groups as well as vigilante ISM.

Majority of of those arrivals come from Nigeria's Soku to State.

UNICR has been present at the onset and the emergency response.

Our emergency response is focused on on protection and life saving activities including registration, protection, education, health and shelter.

We continue to biometrically register these new arriving refugees, but also to highlight the that inside Niger there have been some 19,000 people that have also been displaced in the same region.

I'll stop here.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Babar.

Thanks for this this briefing and Lisa's raise their hand.

[Other language spoken]

How are you?

[Other language spoken]

I have a have a few short questions for you.

First, the attacks in in Northern Nigeria, are they by Boko Haram or are there other armed groups that are involved in these attacks?

If so, who are they and has government security, I mean is it non existent or has it fallen down, particularly given the COVID-19 where there may be some fears about going into the area?

Then you say at the end of your presentation that the the fighting is not linked to armed groups in the Lake Chad and Sahel region.

So who are they?

Who are these armed groups again?

And then lastly, are you and other agencies able to access the people in Niger?

Do you have the means in order to provide them help because the number of people in need has gone up so, so, so greatly.

[Other language spoken]

Just the starting point in terms of Boko Haram or not Boko Haram, as far as we understand, the northwestern part of where all this trouble is taking place and people are being killed and attacked is not linked to Boko Haram.

These are many of the attacks were linked to farmers and herders, a lot of vigilantism, a lot of other groups that are operating in the region.

But it's very evident in terms of the impact it has had.

Now due to all these attacks, we are seeing more than 60,000 people taking refuge inside Nigeria from this part of Nigeria.

But Boko Haram violence has displaced already 2,000,000 Nigerians in in the northeastern parts of Nigeria and in and forcing around 1/4 million Nigerians to take refuge in the neighbouring countries and also affecting other countries in the region as well in terms of accessing those areas.

[Other language spoken]

We are present working hand in hand with authorities in Niger.

One of our main concern with access and remoteness and also trying to take care of these new arriving desperate refugees is closeness of the area where these refugees have arrived to the border.

So our work is going on with authorities that we are able to move them further inland.

So they are are protected from any further incursions or any other attacks that the armed groups groups may have had.

In terms of resources, indeed resources are required.

As far as our needs for our Niger operations are, we need more than 80 million U.S.

dollars for our ongoing regular operations in the country, which is only 30% funded at this stage.

[Other language spoken]

So then I, I gather that the, the fighting that's going on in the Lake Chad and Sahel area is distinct from what is happening in Western Nigeria and in Tunisia, is that right?

These are different conflicts.

[Other language spoken]

But the way we have seen things in northwest and northeast Nigeria, conflict in security is affecting millions of people inside Nigeria.

Now we're talking more than 2 million people who have been displaced.

And as attacks continue, more may run to save their lives.

And many are arriving in the neighbouring countries to seek seek safety.

Thank you very much, Babar.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see other requests for the floor.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry.

Peter has just raised send.

[Other language spoken]

Actually, I wanted to ask this question to Yens.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see any other question for you, Babar.

So let me see if Yens is still on the line.

Yes, he is.

So Peter, just go ahead and ask you a question.

[Other language spoken]

I just wondered if you could explain to us the fact that you can get statistics in Eastern Ukraine in the non governmental controlled areas.

Could you explain to us why that situation exists?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you Peter.

So the the data that I have I shall rightly point out from non government controlled areas is, is of course separate from what we received from the officially from the government of Ukraine.

The source of that is the non governmental controlled area health administrations.

So they have health administrations within the the the structures that that they have and that is where we get these kind of information.

Peter, you I see you still have your hand on That's OK.

OK, thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

OK, so let me go to the last thank you to everybody.

Let me go to our last speaker, but definitely not least Claire journalist.

Can she be unmuted?

[Other language spoken]

Hi, Claire, you are on.

[Other language spoken]

Morning, everybody.

Last but definitely not, not least as I say, WMO this morning has issued a new global seasonal climate update.

It covers the forthcoming 3 months, so May, June and July.

And no surprise, warmer than average temperatures are expected over land for large parts of the world in the forthcoming season because of warmer than average sea surface temperatures.

Now this product, the global seasonal climate update, I know you're all familiar with our El Nino bulletins.

This is wider.

So it looks at factors such as El Nino and other climate drivers, including what we call the Indian Ocean Dipole, which is a more regional type of El Nino, and it factors in the global warming.

In a nutshell, both El Nino and the Indian Ocean Dipole are expected to remain near neutral in the next in the next couple of months.

But we do have climate change and we saw from European Monthly report that April 2020 tide as the warmest April on record.

This was along with April 16.

Back in April 16 there was a strong El Nino.

This year there is no El Nino.

Global temperatures in January, February and March were also the warmest or the second warmest year on record, according to international databases.

So we're seeing now that, you know, the, the, the human influence on our climate is actually stronger.

It's more powerful than, you know, natural forces of nature such as such as such as El Nino.

In the press release we've sent out, we we have a couple of maps that gives you an idea of where we are expecting above average temperatures, above average precipitation or below average precipitation.

And there just to mention it was addressed in the briefing on Friday by UNHCR the the rainfall in East Africa, just to say that we heard yesterday that a number of stations in East Africa, you know, have received the the highest rainfall on on, on record.

And this is indeed a very, very serious situation.

So as I said, the global seasonal climate update, it's what we call in pre operational phase at the moment.

So it's not actually a forecast, but it does aim to give guidance to governments and to decision makers to to prepare for, you know, for coming, coming temperatures and rainfall.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Claire, I see Jamil has a question for you.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning to all.

Yes, I have a question to Claire, but also to Margaret later, if you would allow.

Yeah, I have a few people with us for the for questions to Margaret.

So let's let's ask the questions to Claire and then once we're finished with Claire, we'll go to Margaret.

I hope she's still on the line and I'll have a look.

[Other language spoken]

We've seen in 2019 a record deforestation in the Amazon again this year another record deforestation in the Amazon.

Can these, can this, let's say, phenomena be already, let's say, translated into some kind of an impact in climate already?

Or is it too soon to to have this translation, let's say?

I think it needs to be taken into a wider context.

I mean, just as a general rule of thumb, any deforestation, be it as a result of wildfires, be it from, you know, from, from human activities is.

Does have a long term detrimental impact because biomass trees, they are very important sinks for carbon.

You know that important carbon sinks, they absorb carbon dioxide when they burn that emits CO2 in the atmosphere.

But I say it needs to be taken in a wider context because what we saw last year, it wasn't just deforestation in the Amazon.

We saw very, very, very bad wildfires in the Arctic, unprecedented.

We, you know, we hadn't seen them before.

And that certainly to climate scientists was a major concern of, you know, possible shape of things to come when you have what used to be pristine areas of the Arctic, you know, suddenly, you know, suddenly burning.

So yes, you know, deforestation in the Amazon.

It's not just the Amazon.

You know, we also see it in in Southeast Asia, in in parts of Africa.

It it's concerning, but it needs to be taken.

You know, it's it's part of a much, much bigger picture.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, good morning, Claire.

[Other language spoken]

That is the fact that there is not an El Nino this year, is that a good thing or a bad thing in terms of freaky weather that we might expect?

And on that subject, what are your greatest concerns in terms of the type of whether that that might really have devastating impacts upon countries around the world?

[Other language spoken]

I don't know whether this is one of those seasons and if you could be a little specific about what might occur in Africa if you have that information.

And then lastly, do you think that countries are prepared enough for extreme weather events, particularly you issued this report recently about the fact that observation stations are really not up to par.

And so would that possibly create a problem in terms of early warning systems and preparations?

[Other language spoken]

OK, in in terms of freaky weather, El Nino obviously does have major impacts on climate and in different parts of the world, you know, it leads to flooding in some parts or drought in in others.

The fact that we don't have an El Nino this year doesn't mean that we're not going to see extreme weather.

In fact, you know we are seeing extreme weather and we will continue to see extreme weather.

Some of this is due to, you know, what we call naturally occurring climate variability.

But most extreme weather now happens against the backdrop of climate change.

There's more heat in the atmosphere, there's more moisture in the atmosphere.

So that means we are seeing more extreme heat events.

We're seeing more extreme rainfall events.

We often see the quote, you know, there is no normal anymore.

You know, everything is taking place against hasn't, you know, bears the footprint of of of climate change, extreme weather to anticipate.

Obviously in the Northern Hemisphere, we are approaching summer in in Asia now it's pre monsoon season where we quite often see very, very ****, ****, ****, **** temperatures, heat waves.

So that is something to be prepared for.

And yes, we are coming up to the Atlantic hurricane season.

the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they will be issuing the hurricane outlook I think in the next in the next couple of weeks.

But as we saw recently in the Pacific, the Hurricane Harold, tropical Cyclone Harold, which hit Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, it was very powerful tropical cyclone Category 5 at its peak.

And the fact that, you know, it happened in an era of, of COVID made disaster management more complicated than otherwise.

And that will be the same for the Atlantic hurricane season.

And it will be the same for the management of, of, of heat waves.

Now WHO their European office last night posted on the website and perhaps if Margaret Harris does come, she can give you more details.

They posted on their website last night some very good information on, you know, what to do during heat waves in the area of COVID.

I can I can certainly share that, share that link with you.

Are countries prepared for extreme weather during the COVID era?

One of our messages since the since the outset of this pandemic from our secretary general, from the whole organisation is that we need to pay, you know, attention to our multi hazard early warning systems.

The pandemic now adds to those, to those hazards.

Governments are not really doing enough.

They weren't doing enough before the pandemic.

And obviously now with the, you know, lots of competing, you know, lots of competing issues, you know, for, for, for resources, you know, it's, you know, it's quite difficult to get governments to focus on the need.

You know, we really do need strong multi hazard early warning systems against hurricanes, against heat waves, because these things are all interlinked.

They have a cascading effect and COVID now is one of those hazards on Africa.

Rainfall.

We posted, we posted an item on our website last week and I will update it today just to say that we have seen record rainfall in in recent weeks in many parts of East Africa and there are more flood warnings in place at the moment, certainly in parts of Somalia and Ethiopia.

Thank you, Claire, I will also ask in a moment, Margaret, if she wants to compliment that.

But I have a last question I think for you and it's from Robin.

And then we will go to WHO.

Robin, Hello there.

[Other language spoken]

You said, you said we're seeing the, the human influence on the climate is stronger and more powerful than the natural forces.

Could you talk a little bit more about that?

Is that something that we've seen for the first time now?

Is that something that's new during the the COVID crisis?

[Other language spoken]

It's, it's, it's, it's, it's not new and it's not linked to to COVID at all.

My comment was more in respect of temperatures.

So in the past, we would see, you know, very warm years or very warm months when there was an El Nino because that, you know, it's a naturally occurring force of nature and it does have a warming impact on our climate.

What we're seeing increasingly is that we're having, you know, we're seeing record temperatures without an El Nino effect.

2016 remains the warmest year on record.

And that was the combination of very strong El Nino plus climate change.

But all the years subsequent to El Nino, subsequent to 2016, including last year, 2019, have been very warm without an El Nino.

So 2019 was the second warmest year on record.

There was no El Nino.

And the signal from climate change was was was stronger than that of, you know, strong.

I mean, your years in the past.

[Other language spoken]

I see he has lower dissent, so we should be fine.

OK, Claire, thank you very much.

Can you stay with us a little bit more because there are more questions.

I'm not sure whether they are for you or for Margaret, but I'll go to Margaret now as promised.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for for having joined the press briefing.

I've got a few questions lined up for you.

Maybe I don't know if you want to start, if you have anything to compliment to say on what Claire said about your note on how to faith global heath waves that you have published yesterday.

And then I'll go to the questions right as you like detail on that.

I think Claire is in fact ahead of me on that one.

But any questions that people need or the link, Claire says she she's already got the link.

So that's great.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Margaret.

So I'll go to the first question is from Emma Farge, who asks, yes, ask you a question, Emma.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everybody.

And Margaret, my question is about COVID-19 and Africa.

And from a few discussions I've been having, people are starting to say that on the whole, the epidemics there have not been as bad as many experts predicted, or at least not yet.

I'm wondering if you have any kind of early interpretation as to why that might be and is it too soon to say?

[Other language spoken]

So yes, I'll start the caveat that the outbreaks in Africa are definitely on the rise.

[Other language spoken]

If you if you took the curve for the, the countries in the African region for WHO, you will see a rise.

And having said that, there are certainly countries that have shown that early intervention and really good solid public health work like the testing, contact tracing is effective.

And I'm thinking of South Africa and also African countries do have a big advantage over many of the countries in the rest of the world that have not experienced infectious disease outbreaks.

They've got, they understand what an infectious disease outbreak can do to society, to communities, how disruptive it is and also what you need to do to stop them.

So, and they have in place often very good contact tracing infrastructure and a deep, deep, deep memory, deep understanding of why you take a new pathogen very, very seriously.

So yes, indeed it's early days, but the African countries, I know it's a generalisation, but remember somewhere like DRC can have nine serious emergencies going on at the same time.

So in a sense they are better geared to understanding this new world, this world that's so new for everybody else.

[Other language spoken]

The numbers are growing very, very fast, both of deaths and of new infections.

Some of the data point out that is basically the second and third in the world today.

2 questions, first, are you, do you consider Brazil as a one of the epicentres today of the pandemic And two, what went wrong?

So the Americas is certainly driving the world epidemic.

So the by far the largest number of cases and sadly deaths is occurring in the Americas.

So we would call the Americas the current centre.

Definitely.

[Other language spoken]

This is something that we will all understand.

What went wrong, why we got such a large global pandemic?

All these questions are being looked at and being asked.

And really we won't have good answers until we have time to analyse also what went right.

[Other language spoken]

The highlight question is actually to Claire on what you just said.

[Other language spoken]

Christian, we can't hear this an awful audio loop.

I'm sorry.

You cannot hear me.

There is a huge echo behind your voice.

Maybe you want to to recall there's been some noise outside and now it's a little bit better.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry about that.

You said that because sea temperatures go up in May and June, you expect land temperatures to be above average.

How do you know that sea temperatures are going up in May and June?

And why do they go up?

Claire, you're not muted just one second, now you are.

[Other language spoken]

It's not so much the fact that they're going up in May and June is the fact that they've been **** for a very long time now.

We saw last year ocean heat was at record level as well as sea surface temperatures.

And the fact that you do have these very **** above average sea surface temperatures, not not everywhere, but certainly in most parts of the world that then plays out onto land temperatures just because of the close interactions between, you know, between sea surface temperatures and the atmosphere.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, it's complicated with the follow-ups.

Sorry, sorry again, again to Margaret.

Unfortunately, the Americas is a huge continent and it's basically very diverse.

And my question was about Brazil.

Is Brazil one of the epicentres today of the buy of the pandemic or not?

[Other language spoken]

Brazil is certainly seeing a large rise in cases.

But the the, the, the main driver, the country with the most cases and the still with the, the most cases in the world is the United States of America.

Thank you, Peter.

Thank you for your patience.

[Other language spoken]

I, I don't know whether this question has been answered before, but a lot of the world is putting faith in the fact that vaccine might just be discovered quicker than vaccines are normally discovered.

Has there been any vaccine ever against any corona virus?

[Other language spoken]

That's a very good question.

So indeed the, the work to develop the vaccine is moving faster than in the history of, of science and we have 100 / 100 candidate vaccine and the ways in which it's being tested are being accelerated.

But coronaviruses are very tricky viruses.

They are difficult to produce vaccines against and that's why quite, quite a lot of the leading scientists are managing that expectation.

The work to to stimulate the level of immunity you need and to ensure that that immunity genuinely protects against the coronavirus is the area of science is the really sharp end of science right now.

And that's something we don't yet have a clear answer to.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Alexandra.

[Other language spoken]

This is Shane from China Central Television.

So Shane not here.

[Other language spoken]

We can't hear you, but you are a muted.

So my question is, Oh, no, Shane, can he be unmuted again?

[Other language spoken]

OK, so my question is about the World House Assembly.

So the first one is it's going to be next Monday.

So will there be also the virtual briefing as well on Monday, next Monday?

So and the second thing is I noticed on the agenda it says there will be invited speakers.

How many speakers will there be and how long they're going to address the the issues and who are they?

[Other language spoken]

And we haven't got those details yet, but we're hoping to be able to bring those all to you on Friday.

So our plan, you know, this is definitely a work in progress.

First time we've ever done this.

And, but we are hoping we'll, we'll have all that detail for you and we'll be able to give you the Palais journalist, a much clearer idea of what's going to happen.

And maybe Margaret, also the question if you are continuing with the Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.

Ah, yes, I, I currently we're expecting that there will be the Monday, but that hasn't been 100% clarified for us as well.

But again, as soon as we know, you'll know.

Shane, I think you haven't finished with your question.

You had another question.

I think you were cut.

Can you he be unmuted again?

If you had another question, I heard you your voice going, no, you're not coming back.

[Other language spoken]

Hi, thank you very much.

Thank you for taking my question.

Hello, Margaret, nice to see you.

Yesterday, Mike Ryan in the briefing said something that some countries are going kind of blind to this pandemic in question of testing.

[Other language spoken]

But for example, in Mexico, despite the fact that the mortality rate is very ****, 10%, the authorities say that there is no need to do testing anymore.

So I know that many times have said this, but how important is to do tests and who should be tested?

[Other language spoken]

So you're quite right.

The tests are your eyes on your virus.

This tells you where the virus is moving, where your epidemic is.

[Other language spoken]

So when you've got an overwhelming outbreak and you've got limited testing, you'll have to look at where you've got your greatest vulnerability.

So that's among your healthcare workers, that's in people in long term care facilities, in the places where if you get an outbreak there, you've got a real disaster.

But ideally you should be ramping up your testing because these are your eyes.

This is how you can see what's happening.

I have to say, I'm going to have to go.

I'm being thrown out of the room.

Are there any more questions?

There are quite a few.

In fact, Margaret, they're about 8-8 more.

I'll have to ask for a just a delay of maybe a few minutes.

[Other language spoken]

I've got a mission breathing.

I'm, I'm being thrown out.

I'm in the building.

So listen, look, I will come back in 5 minutes.

If, if that's OK.

I just have to move physically.

OK, Yes, I think our, our journalists would like to stay on the line so that we can ask you the questions.

I would like to ask everybody's indulgence.

We will have to wait while Margaret reconnects.

I would like to ask the journalist please, since Margaret needs to go and and, and reconnect, if you could please lower your hands.

Let's wait for Margaret to reconnect.

In the meantime, if there's any non WHO related question, please raise your hands.

But the others please raise it, put it down.

Otherwise I can't see the difference.

And then we will come back to you as soon as Margaret is able to answer.

Is there any question which is not related to CNN to sorry, I just saw Paula, that's why or anybody else who wants to ask questions which are not for WHO, Isabel is your question for WHO or for me or some other speakers, it's for Margaret.

[Other language spoken]

So can you please lower your hand and and wait for her to reconnect.

I guess Paula is the same thing.

Paula, your hand is still on.

You want to ask a question non to Margaret, to anybody else?

[Other language spoken]

I had, I had a question for both Margaret and WMO for Claire.

OK, So maybe you can start with Claire since she's still connected.

[Other language spoken]

The question Claire is really if she could explain a little bit about the link between image and the expense of El Nino.

So can you just repeat it?

There was a bit of a glitch.

[Other language spoken]

And Paula, we really have we really have an issue in hearing you you you come out quite broken.

I think were you asked me about the, the relationship between Elena and climate change.

OK, All right.

[Other language spoken]

So I must take it as a yes, that's the case.

The relationship is that in in, in the past strong El Nino years would result in, you know, temperatures, you know, above average.

So for instance, there was a strong El Nino year in 1998 and that meant that for a long time, 1998 was considered as the, as the warmest year on record.

That was purely the El Nino effect.

But now because of the impact of, of, of climate change, the, the, the signal from climate change from human activities is actually stronger than the one from El Nino.

So it means that years such as 20/19 when there was no El Nino was the second warmest on record.

It means that this year, you know, we're seeing monthly, monthly temperatures, which are, you know, either the, the 1st or the 2nd warmest on record.

And there's no, and there's no El Nino.

So that the climate change signal now is, is stronger than that of El Nino.

We don't know if, you know, climate change is going to make El Ninos more frequent.

There's research going, you know, going there's research being carried out in into that.

We hope we answered.

She answered your question for because really it wasn't very clear.

But thank you very much, Claire for for for this answer.

[Other language spoken]

I would like to ask everybody who wanted to ask her questions to raise their hand again.

And I will start with Shane.

We I think had a follow up or to his question on on on WHA Shane?

[Other language spoken]

I was not I was muted before, so can't speak.

Yeah, that's I was I heard.

[Other language spoken]

So the question is about yesterday's briefing that Mister Solomon said Taiwan was in, there was a proposal for cert by 13 member states or part of the WHA and I want to know more about the procedure.

So if you wanted to invite someone or propose that, is that going to be discussed on WHA is always going to be during the executive board meeting or something?

So, and I heard, I remember he said there was, it was not a consensus or something like that.

So I could you elaborate more about the process and, and the, and the, the details of this, this kind of a proposal.

[Other language spoken]

Shane, I, I will give you the floor to Margaret, but I would like to remind you that we had an extensive briefing with the legal officer of WHO on this particular subject of the last briefing.

So just just so that you know that you can go back to that and this has been recorded is on web TV.

But Margaret, if Margaret can be unmuted now, please, by my colleagues, can you unmute Margaret so that she can?

[Other language spoken]

That was the problem.

OK, look, I I was just about to say the same thing.

You had an extensive briefing.

[Other language spoken]

This is very much process.

This.

Remember, the World Health Assembly is the Member States Assembly.

So the decisions are taken by the Member States and and it is their process.

But please refer to the recorded and detailed briefing.

That's precisely why you were given that briefing.

And it's on untv.un.org that you will find it.

[Other language spoken]

OK, so let's go to the next question.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I, I, it's a sort of a follow up on the on Jamil's question on the Americas.

And I would like to know if the wave of coronavirus virus cases in in that region that have happened well after we realised that this virus was very dangerous.

And I would like to know if this is because you you consider that this is because some countries of the countries most affected, like the US and Brazil denied at the beginning that it was so dangerous and didn't take the prevention measures that were needed.

And what in and in that sense also what can we expect now in the US that they when the countries were starting their normal economic activities?

[Other language spoken]

So I think I'll go back to what I said about Africa.

Many, many countries in the world have not had an experience of what an infectious disease epidemic can do to your society, how it can shut down your activities.

It can it cut the heart out of your people because it kills so many people.

So it's around the world.

We have seen that the warnings that we put out right from the start, very, very early on were not seen as warnings about a very serious lethal disease.

People tended to focus on the the information that was coming out that 80% of people seem to recover well and not need hospitalisation.

The the two big issues that if you get large numbers of cases in your community, the 20% is a huge number, and that if you cannot treat them, if you cannot care for those people, large numbers of those people will die.

That information seem not to come through through so strongly in many, many countries.

And some of that is down to there being no real memory of such an event.

There are very few people living today who know what something like this looks like.

Now, of course, everyone living today does know what it looks like.

Thank you very much, Margaret.

The next question is from Catherine Fiancon.

[Other language spoken]

Hope you're doing well.

My question is, is, is related to COVID-19, the virus?

We know that many countries lifted the lockdowns and people are going back, kids to school or shops are open.

Could you please tell us, as far as you know, how long does the virus lives on a surface and on fabric?

[Other language spoken]

So this is quite a difficult technical question and there's been a lot of research in different laboratories.

We do have significant information that indicates that it can last for quite some time and I'm talking hours, even days.

So therefore you have to assume that any surface around where people are going, coming and going back and forth is a contaminated surface.

And that's why we go on and on about the hand washing.

We're not just saying it because we think hand washing is good.

It's because it is your number one, your chief protection.

The other important thing that's often forgotten is the importance of environmental cleaning.

And that's why we suddenly understand who really matters in our society.

The cleaners, the garbage collectors, those people who are keeping our environment safe are absolutely crucial, are critical.

[Other language spoken]

Next one is Gorky Alu.

[Other language spoken]

Margaret certain provision key sample pan pass realism esperolo anchor netelpa usually unfriend the the siddiko V Voila eladism question.

NESPA rail passes today the NESPA down and talk to the the philosophy man escape scientific ma Ojordwi on a DACO on on a premium.

[Other language spoken]

Your second question you're asking is there a vaccine or a treatment that right now can can can cure the virus?

Was that your question?

[Other language spoken]

So no, we do not have any treatment or any vaccine that is will go with treatments because treatments are completely different from vaccines.

We do have some treatments that seem to be in a very early studies limiting the severity or the length of the illness, but we do not have anything that's proven to **** and stop the virus.

So we have to assume we do not have a treatment at this at this time that can **** and stop the virus.

We do have potentially positive data coming out, but we need to see more data to be 100% confident that we can say this treatment over that treatment.

So at the moment we have a very large trial called the Solidarity trial going on.

We're, we're, we're comparing 4 of the four or five of the candidate treatments that are looking potentially positive, but we want to see if there really is a big difference in the effect.

And we'll only know that by looking at large numbers of people in different countries, different settings, because it could, it could have a different effect on me than on you.

That could be down to genetics.

It could be down to the early stage of the disease, the late stage of the disease.

It could be down to cut the kind of care you get.

So until we've managed to sort of flatten out all those other things by having large numbers of people so that you can truly compare, we will not have clear information, but we're certainly working on it.

Thank you very much.

Paula, you had the second question, one for Claire and one for Margaret.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I wanted, I wanted to ask about the situation in Ecuador where there's been now a loosening of the lockdown measures, yet the mortality rates are still the highest in the region.

You know, recently we've seen these images of the health system that was really unable to cope with the situation.

How, how concerned are you about the situation there?

And then also I wanted to just ask about any to provide assistance as it's it's really don't move.

We have Paula, we have the last part of your question came broken.

If you the beginning was fine.

The second question you asked we could not understand.

Yeah, the second, the second question is really about assistance to this region that's really, you know, in a bad shape if yours Margaret.

So to the first part, any country coming out of lockdown really, this is a difficult and critical time because you've you've managed to in, in most countries have managed to slow the virus.

But as people come out the, the dangerous people think, OK, it's over, it's fine.

We're back to what we were doing before.

Now we're all living with the virus.

It's all there.

All the things that applied before things got so bad that countries decided that they needed to quarantine the entire community, those threats, those problems are still there.

So now we have to behave differently.

We have to ensure that we can test, ensure that we can do excellent contact tracing, ensure that we can socially distance, ensure that we can maintain an excellently hygienic environment and cover our coughs and sneezes, ensure we're not coughing and sneezing on other people.

So all those things have to happen and that applies across the board.

The other thing that is very important is the epidemiology.

So when countries are generally using, we do ask that they have can see that their cases are coming down and that they can also keep very good eyes on what's happening with their epidemiology.

So they are doing the testing that we discussed earlier that they have their eyes on what's going on.

As far as assistance, yes, we are providing a great deal of assistance.

For specific details, I'll have to refer you to our my PAHO colleagues because they will have the specific numbers on that.

But essentially we're also, I think you had Paul Mononaro brief you a week ago.

We have a large sort of control centre here where we're trying to match the needs of countries in terms of supplies I'm talking about.

So the needs for the the testing supplies, the personal protective equipment and also the medical equipment like oxygen and oxygen concentrators and other things, we're trying to source it and and match it, but on specific assistance to Ecuador.

I'll have to refer you to my PAHO colleagues.

Thank you very much, Margaret.

Now my next request is from you, you Yoshitaki Asahi Shimbun.

[Other language spoken]

My question is about the after action reviewer Dr Harris mentioned one of the previous questions there.

I know there is a video illustrating this overview of this process, but I'd like to know a bit more about it and the how does that involve the independent experts or how does it reflect the experts view outside that?

Rachel that that's one question and or is it sort of the internal review and the well, what is the last case, if there is, what is the last case of the this after action review of current framework?

[Other language spoken]

So we do after action reviews after every significant outbreak.

So I I for instance, went off to Peshawar to do an action to assist with an after action review after a dengue outbreak.

So whenever there's a big outbreak somewhere, we do an after action review.

And it is very much an independent process with that kind of after action review.

It's involves the people who were doing the work in a kind of process where they could.

They it's it they're able, it's like charter house rules, right?

You can that they're encouraged to say everything they think that went wrong, everything they think that could be done better.

And the aim is to try to get out of that a way of dealing with the next outbreak or whatever it was in a better way, you know, a real lessons learned process.

It is done very much independently.

The people who come from somewhere like WHO come in to be independent, support.

The review itself is usually done by the people who were very much in the action.

So when we're talking about, say, looking at an outbreak of this extent, which has involved every country in the world, the structure is by by necessity going to be different.

And such a review certainly will have to be done in a way that you minimise conflicts of interest, but you also offer the opportunity for a genuinely free and frank discussion where people put it on the table what they think went wrong, what they think went right and how we're all going to do better.

Thank you very much.

The next request for the floor is Byram and I do the one thing.

Byram, you're on one second.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for taking my question lesson.

Sorry as Switzerland is up on the lactam, I was at the centre of Geneva yesterday and I witnessed that life is almost back to normal here and you have Geneva based organisation, however very if serious, are wearing masks in the public.

Seem that almost none of young people wearing masks in Geneva.

So what is the WHS stance on this issue as wearing mask obligation in so many countries?

[Other language spoken]

So your question is about what our position is on masks, I think.

So what we say is if you're going to wear a face covering, it's in order to protect other people from you.

That's in order to protect anything that you cough or sneeze out from going any further to limit the chance that any respiratory droplets fall on medical masks.

We say that this should be ideally reserved for the healthcare workers because they need the most.

We don't say you can't wear a mask, but we're not saying it's compulsory.

However, we do say respect the rules of your local jurisdiction.

Thank you very much, Emma.

Yes, you have another question.

And then there is also John and I think then we are at the end of the list of questions.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I I was hoping, Margaret, you might be able to elaborate a little bit more on something your colleague Mike Ryan was talking about yesterday in the briefing and he was very strong about countries coming out of lockdown and driving blindly was the expression he used.

He he didn't talk about specific countries, but I'm wondering if you can give any sense of, you know, the geographic areas where you're seeing some serious blind driving as he called out, called it as we're coming out of lock down.

[Other language spoken]

So no, I'm not going to give you specifics because this then we end up getting into a beauty contest where one country says my country is doing better than that country.

But I think it is a question that needs to be asked in every country.

Are you testing?

Are you contact tracing?

Have you got all that in place?

Because if you look at the six criteria, we say for managing easing your lock down, getting that bit right, that getting your eyes on where your virus is trying to transmit, it's absolutely crucial Because remember, we do not have a vaccine.

And as I mentioned, we do not have treatments that we know can **** the virus.

What we do know can stop the virus is seeing where the transmission is and finding out who might have been exposed, stopping that chain because the virus has to be in our bodies to to to survive.

Once it's gone, it can be gone.

But you can only do that if you can cut that chain of transmission.

Nassim, thank you very much.

John, I would like to come back to the new guidelines you posted on Sunday on your site about the people gradually going back to the work environment.

I noticed you still stress one metre or more, but many countries around the world are implementing at least 1.5 metres and many two metres.

So why is WHL only sticking to the one metre as a minimum still when most countries and epidemiologists are stressing 1.5 metres or more?

And my second question is a follow up to Cath in, in, in laboratory tests, at what temperature does the virus die?

So #1 the reason, the thing to emphasise there is the more because practically it may be difficult to achieve the, you know, the two metres.

That's why we have given that latitude.

That's why that that is there.

On your second question, I don't have the specific number with me, sorry, John, but please come back to me.

There's been a lot of studies and some in laboratories people are finding it quite difficult to ****.

But I'll need to look at where we are on, on, on the sort of accumulation of knowledge on how, how to **** the virus by by heating it.

Thank you very much, John, Your, your hand is on.

I mean, I'm interested in in, in specific laboratory tests.

Surely after four months, there must have been tests that show at what temperature the virus dies, for instance, in the case of mad *** in the late 80s that are John.

But I don't have that number in degrees.

I'm going to give you the wrong number.

Actually.

I'm saying you do have actually, so I can give you the correct number.

[Other language spoken]

OK then thanks for.

No, I'm not not trying to hide it.

There's definitely a lot of works being done on it.

But I don't have that number sitting in front of me.

[Other language spoken]

I think all of us are interested in this.

I just don't want to hog the floor.

[Other language spoken]

I'll get the number for you and share it.

That would be good, Margaret.

Thank you very much.

So thank you, Margaret, for this extensive answers to a number of questions.

I would like to thank all our speakers that have been today with us.

This brings us to the end of this briefing.

And so have a nice afternoon and see you virtually on Friday.

Thank you very much.