The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 06 Aug 2024
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1:13:13
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UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
6 August 2024
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
COVID-19 update
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness & Prevention at the World Health Organization (WHO), stressed that COVID-19 was still very much with us and was circulating in all countries. Data from WHO’s sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reported that the percent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 had been rising for several weeks. Overall, test positivity was above 10 percent, but this fluctuated per region. In Europe, for example, percent positivity was above 20 percent. In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries had experienced surges, including at the Olympics, where at least 40 athletes had been tested positive. Governments needed to continue to invest and support a global understanding of circulation and impact and provide their populations with the tools to protect themselves and care for people suffering from acute and long-term effects of COVID-19, including post COVID-19 condition. Regular and robust risk assessments, improved ventilation, and high vaccination coverage were among recommendations to governments around the world, said Dr. Van Kerkhove. Countries were urged to share more genetic sequences and regularly report data on hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths. WHO urged more financial support to study post-COVID long term conditions. Finally, as individuals, we all needed to take steps to reduce the risk of infection. Billions of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered around the world, preventing millions of deaths. The highest-risk groups should receive their new COVID-19 vaccines within 12 months of their last dose, said Dr. Van Kerkhove. Governments ought to secure adequate supplies of both COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, ahead of the cold season in the northern hemisphere, stressed Dr. Van Kerkhove.
Responding to questions from the media, Dr. Van Kerkhove said that at the Olympics in Paris, the authorities, in cooperation with the WHO, had taken a number of measures to prevent spread of infectious diseases. More people than before were wearing masks at the Olympic Games. The levels of COVID-19 impact were different now, compared to 2020-2022. Governments needed to make sure that their at-risk populations were vaccinated at least once in 12 months; those vaccines should be given along with influenza vaccines. The critical question was when the last dose had been administered, especially for people over 60 and vulnerable groups. Dr. Van Kerkhove said that the WHO looked at trends from month to month. Hospitalization rates had increased in the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific; only 35 countries or territories were providing relevant information with the WHO.
The true toll of COVID-19 deaths was still unknown. Some six percent of all COVID-19 cases had gone on to develop post-COVID symptoms, which meant many millions of people were now suffering from long COVID. Vaccines needed to be made available to populations, especially those at risk. Regarding the availability of vaccines, there was clearly a decrease in demand, but the virus was not gone, said Dr. Van Kerkhove. There was a large section of the population that required vaccines on a regular basis, so there could be no talk that there was no “market” for the vaccines. WHO could not put COVID-19 on the back burner as much as we might wish to do so personally.
Also answering questions, Dr. Van Kerkhove said that a lot of work had been happening to encourage technology transfer to African countries. There had been a significant attempt to increase MRNA vaccine production capacities on all continents. Work had also been done to increase the capacity for regulatory approval of vaccines, and also to address misinformation and disinformation.
WHO did not operate on fear but on various scenarios, for all of which preparedness was necessary. Individuals needed to understand and minimize their own risk. Any approved vaccine would help prevent severe stress and death, stressed Dr. Van Kerkhove.
Answering a question on mpox, Dr. Van Kerkhove said that the Director-General of WHO was considering calling an emergency meeting to discuss the rising numbers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding countries. There were several licensed vaccines, which should be made available to vulnerable groups. The decision to call an emergency meeting rested with Dr. Tedros.
July – a month of extreme heat
Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that extreme heat had hit hundreds of millions of people throughout July, with a domino effect felt right across society. The world’s hottest day on recent record, 22 July 2024, had been recently registered. This was another unwelcome indication of the extent that greenhouse gases from human activities are changing our climate. Global average temperatures for 13 consecutive months (from June 2023 to June 2024) had set new monthly records and the data for July - from WMO-recognized datasets - would confirm whether this exceptional streak continues for yet another month. It underlined the urgency of the Call to Action on Extreme Heat issued by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who said that “Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere.”
Widespread, intense, and extended heatwaves had hit every continent in the past year. At least ten countries had recorded daily temperatures of more than 50° C in more than one location. Death Valley in California had registered a record average monthly temperature of 42.5 °C, possibly a new record observed for anywhere in the world. Even the remote frozen ice sheets of Antarctica have been feeling the heat. Ms. Nullis stressed the importance of adaptation. Recent estimates produced by the WMO and the World Health Organization indicated that the global scale-up of heat health-warning systems for 57 countries alone had the potential to save an estimated 98,000 lives per year, which was one of the priorities of the Early Warnings For All initiative. Climate adaptation alone was not enough. Root causes had to be tackled.
Alvaro Silva, climate expert at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), speaking from Lisbon, said that globally, 22 July had been the hottest day, and 23 July had been a virtual tie, in the reanalysis dataset from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, one of the contributing factors was much above-average temperatures over large parts of Antarctica, with anomalies of more than 10°C above average in some areas, and above average temperatures in parts of the Southern Ocean. In Asia, past July was the warmest on record. In Africa, temperature records had been broken in Morocco, while southern and southeastern Europe had also experienced extreme, record-breaking heat. Heat was becoming more persistent in many parts of the world; Las Vegas, for example, had experienced more than 40 days of temperatures over 40 degrees.
Replying to questions, Ms. Nullis explained that a lot of adaptation could be done through early warnings. Many cities in India had introduced heatwave contingency plans, which included adjusting working hours. Air conditioning had a heavy carbon footprint and could not be considered a solution. Temperatures in heavily built-up urban areas were notably higher in greener areas, so planting trees in cities was one simple yet effective way to act. It was difficult to get accurate statistics at the time, as extreme heat was still rather underreported as a cause of death. It was nearly impossible to have real-time estimates of heat-caused deaths, added Mr. Silva. Early warning against incoming heatwaves was one of the best ways to protect the population; however, people were still sometimes not aware of the risks, or were not taking adequate action.
More information is available here.
Zeina Awad, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), reminded of the ILO’s report on the effect of heat on the world of work.
Landslides in Ethiopia
Paula Fitzgerald, Head of Country Cluster Delegation for Ethiopia and Djibouti at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), speaking from Addis Ababa, said that 30 pregnant and lactating women had been among more than 240 people who had died in landslides in south Ethiopia at the end of July. Heavy rains between 21 and 22 July had triggered successive landslides in the remote mountainous regions of southern Ethiopia, causing significant loss of life and devastation. Some 3,600 people had moved to safer areas. The Ethiopian Red Cross Society had sent an assessment team to Gofa, witnessing families torn apart and parents who had lost their children, and vice versa.
There were reports of another landslide event in southern Ethiopia just overnight, said Ms. Fitzgerald. The rough terrain had made rescue more difficult. Malaria and measles cases had been reported. Despite the challenges, the Red Cross had mobilized quickly and worked with the authorities to provide necessary support. Needs were immense, as large swathes of population were affected. On 2 August, an emergency CHF 6 million appeal had been launched to support and provide early recovery activities in the affected zones. IFRC was committed to a long-term approach and would focus on recovery, cash-assistance, and general resilience. This comprehensive multisectoral approach should help communities recover beyond the emergency stage.
More details are available here.
Some 15,500 people had been affected in total, said Ms. Fitzgerald in response to a question. Landslides happened every year, but this one was particularly tragic.
Announcements
Zeina Awad, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), informed that on 6 August at 10:30 am, report Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 would be launched. Speakers at the press conference, under embargo until 12 August, would be Gilbert Houngbo, ILO Director-General; Mia Seppo, ILO Assistant Director-General for Jobs and Social Protection; and Sara Elder, Head of the Employment Analyses & Economic Policies Unit. Employment trends would be segregated by region and gender. The report would also be looking at the NEET rate: young people not in education, employment, or training. This was the twentieth anniversary of the report, said Ms. Awad.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which had opened its one hundred and thirteenth session on 5 August, would begin this afternoon the review of the report of Venezuela.
Teleprompter
OK, let's start the briefing of the UN Geneva Information Service.
Today is Tuesday, 6th of August and I have the great pleasure to have with me together with Tariq Yasarevich, Dr Maria von Kirkhoff that I mean, I don't think she needs any presentation, but she is the director of the Interim of the Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO and COVID is the 19 is back.
No, I don't know if he's back, but you are here to tell us about it.
So thank you very much and thanks for having me here.
Good morning, everyone.
So thank you very much for the opportunity to brief you on the current COVID-19 situation, the outlook in the coming months.
And our major asked the governments and individuals to reduce COVID-19 impact.
It hasn't gone away, unfortunately.
I especially welcome this opportunity in the context of ongoing crises that countries, communities, families and individuals are facing.
I have three main messages.
First, COVID-19 is still very much with us.
The virus is circulating in all countries.
Data from our Sentinel based systems across 84 countries reports that the percent of positive tests for SARS COV 2 has been rising over the last several weeks.
Overall test positivity is above 10%, but this fluctuates by region.
In Europe, percent positivity is over 20%.
Water surveillance, Water wastewater surveillance suggests that the circulation of SARS COV 2 is 2 to 20 times higher than that what is currently being reported.
This is significant because the virus continues to evolve and change, which puts puts us all at risk of potentially more severe viruses that could evade our detection and our or our medical interventions, including vaccination.
Such **** concentration is not quote unquote typical for respiratory viruses that tend to increase in circulation in the colder months.
In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries have experienced surges of COVID-19, including at the Olympics.
Currently, there are at least 40 athletes who have tested positive.
These surges have resulted in increases in hospitalizations and deaths in many countries.
This needs to be prevented, leading to my second point.
Governments need to continue to invest and support our global understanding of the circulation and impact of this virus and to provide their populations with the tools to protect themselves and care for people suffering from acute and long term effects of COVID-19, including post COVID-19 condition also called on COVID.
The fundamentals of dealing with COVID are critical for all of the threats that we face, including avian influenza, mpox, dengue, cholera.
These include comprehensive and strategic surveillance and sequencing, sharing of information across sectors, regular and robust risk assessment, supportive and early diagnosis for optimal clinical care, prevention of infection through infection prevention and control measures, improved ventilation, smart use of masks, respirators and other personal protective equipment, and **** vaccination coverage, especially in people who are most at risk.
WHO advises countries to maintain core SARS COV 2 surveillance using multiple approaches to meet key strategic objectives, especially to characterise circulating viruses and for early detection and clinical care of patients.
WHO urges countries to share more genetic sequences and to report more on hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths as we rely on this to conduct our risk assessments and measure burden.
In 202435 countries reported data on hospitalizations, 24 on ICU admissions and 70 on deaths.
[Other language spoken]
WHO urges countries to continue to sharpen their pandemic preparedness, readiness and response systems which they have worked very hard on during COVID-19 to be ready for surges of COVID as well as other emerging threats like avian influenza and Pakistani.
WHO urges more financial support and attention to post COVID-19 condition.
There is much we still do not know and we need to provide stronger recommendations for prevention and care and more research is needed.
This is a priority for WHO.
The DG issued standing recommendations and these stand in effect.
Third, as individuals, it is important to take measures to reduce risk of infection and severe disease, including ensuring that you have had a COVID-19 vaccination dose in the last 12 months, especially if you are in an at risk group.
Billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been safely administered globally since 2021, preventing millions of cases, severe severe disease and death.
Over the last two years we've seen an alarming decline in vaccination coverage, especially among health workers and people over 60, two of the most at risk groups.
This urgently needs to be turned around.
WHO recommends that people in the highest risk group receive a COVID vaccine within 12 months of their last dose.
It's not just a matter of if you've been vaccinated, but when you have been vaccinated.
To increase uptake and therefore protection, WHO recommends country consider Co administration of COVID-19 vaccines with seasonal influenza vaccines in the northern hemisphere.
We will be entering the colder months soon but we have seen that COVID-19 will circulate in all climates, all zones.
So it is important that governments take steps to increase and ensure adequate supplies of COVID-19 vaccines as well as influenza vaccines, make sure that they are available especially for their at risk populations.
So to conclude, the virus is here to stay, but the future impact of COVID-19 is up to us.
WHO will continue to work with governments to ensure systems that were built and strengthened during COVID-19 are maintained to tackle this virus and other emerging threats.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Mr Completely corrected.
It never went away, but we are happy to have you here back at the briefing.
So is there any question?
[Other language spoken]
Thank you, Doctor von Kerkov.
My first question is about the Olympics in Paris.
You say that more than 40 athletes have been tested positive.
Do you think that because there is a lot of people now in Paris, they have to wear masks as it was the case during the 2021 and 2020 year?
Or do you think that this is not something that they need to do right now?
And do you think that the all the governments maybe have to put more strength to vaccinate people because this is something that we are not hearing right now.
There is nothing about the vaccination in our daily life.
So do you think that this is something that has to come back?
[Other language spoken]
So thank you very much for these two questions.
First to the question related to the Olympics, sorry, thank you.
I'm a novice at the at the press conferences.
I think thanks very much for the question on the Olympics, the Olympics authorities working together with us have taken a large number of measures to prevent infectious disease circulation at the Olympics itself.
It's really incredible and and comprehensive of what they've done.
What I do understand, I mean, we don't have the same measures that are in place that we saw in Beijing and we saw in Tokyo.
But circulation and impact of COVID is certainly different than it was before.
We have observed more people wearing masks at the Olympics.
And I think that is to take into consideration the circulation of SARS Co V2, but also other respiratory threats that are there.
There are measures, other measures that are in place in terms of testing, early testing, clinical care.
So I think that the Olympic Committee working together with us, our mass gatherings team, have looked at all of the different approaches that need to be in place, and I think they're taking the right measures.
It's not surprising to see athletes being infected because as I said before, the virus is circulating quite rampantly in other countries.
What's very different now is the impact.
We aren't seeing the levels of impact like we saw in 2020-2021, 2022.
And that's because we have therapeutics, we have better testing and we have protection because of past infection as well as vaccination.
On your second question, absolutely governments need to be strengthening their approach to using COVID vaccines, especially ahead of the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere.
But as I've pointed out, the virus takes advantage to circulate whenever it can.
So making sure that the at risk populations are vaccinated at least once every 12 months is really critical to increase uptake.
We're asking for countries to consider Co administration with influenza, which we hope if a person comes in it, it takes a lot to get a person to come in to get vaccinated.
And it's different now in terms of the vaccination plans, the way that countries have actually rolled out.
If you remember, I think it's it's fresh every in everyone's mind.
The vaccination campaigns were quite incredible during the crisis point of of COVID.
But now for the older age groups, they come in for influenza vaccines.
They should be getting their COVID-19 vaccines as well.
But but my big point here is it's not just I hear a lot of people say, well, I've already been vaccinated.
You know, I've had two doses or I've had three doses.
Some people have not had any doses.
But what's really critical is when was your last dose?
If you are over 60, if you have underlying conditions, you need to be vaccinated at least once every 12 months.
So when were you last vaccinated?
And we're asking governments to ensure that their campaigns include COVID-19 vaccines for this this coming year.
OK, Thank you very much.
If there are no other question in the room, let me go to the platform.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
How are you?
[Other language spoken]
I would like to ask a couple of questions on numbers.
So you mentioned that 35 countries have informed about hospitalizations.
What is the rate?
You mentioned deaths, what is the rate?
You mentioned the alarming reduction on vaccination, what is the number?
So if you could put all of this that you've said in numbers would be very useful to all of us.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you for the the question and the very specific one, which I will not be able to give you as specific of an answer as I would like.
And I have to caveat this is because the information that I'm able to provide is based on what is provided to WHO through official reporting.
But also we've gone back to I was told the word is not trolling, but scrolling websites where we actually pull down Ministry of Health reports and pull data together to add to our dashboard.
What I can tell you on the hospitalizations and the ICU admissions, we look at trends month by month.
And what we're trying to see is together with with wastewater estimates which we have from a number of country and these are on our dashboard, the wastewater increases in case detection give us about a two to three-week head start of when we might start to see hospitalizations.
On the hospitalisation rates, we've seen increases in the Americas, we've seen increases in Europe in recent months.
We've seen increases in the Western Pacific.
35 countries out of 234 countries and territories are providing this information.
Now that number may fluctuate a little bit depending on the month, but on average it's about 3535 out of 234.
So about 15% of available countries, territories have that information to share with us.
On ICU, it's even less, 24 out of 234 in the last month alone.
So that's about 10% of the available countries and territories that could have that type of information.
Now, absolute numbers of hospital admissions and ICU are much, much lower than they were during the peak of COVID, 2020-2021, 2022 for sure.
But we still feel that there's much more that needs to be done.
I find it very difficult to talk about this in terms of the burden because the argument I get back as well, you know, Maria, it's so much less than it was before.
It's so much less than it wasn't.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
But there's still a lot of people that are currently suffering from hospital from severe disease requiring ICU admission and who are dying then.
And that can be prevented because we have tools that are available and that exist on the deaths we have.
We don't have enough data I think on deaths to really understand the impact of this and I think that's becoming a bigger challenge.
The estimates that we have for excess mortality only go up to the end of 2021.
We don't have estimates for 2023 or even 2024.
So the true toll in terms of severe disease of post COVID condition of deaths is really unknown.
I should mention in terms of numbers that about 6% of symptomatic individuals with COVID are estimated to have gone on to develop post COVID condition.
Now infections are still continuing, so that number is based on an old meta analysis, but 6% of infections, of symptomatic infections and we've had billions of infections.
This is a massive burden.
So a lot more work needs to be done on vaccination.
We collect data up to the end of 2023, we were collecting data by quarter by, excuse me, by month.
And now we're collecting data by quarter and by every six months.
So we're changing the way that we report vaccination coverage.
The latest data that I have really is from the end of the year at the end of 2023 where I mean I can show you figure and I can share the figure with with you.
In terms of the coverage over, you know, the the first quarter of 2020, four, 10 million people received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine and that's different from a peak of 1.7 million that repeated that received a dose one month at the peak of 2021.
So clearly there's a decline, but again, the question is around the risk groups and this is really concerning for us.
If you ask in every single country is having this problem, not just low income countries, it's more severe in low income countries, but in **** income countries, the the percent coverage of healthcare workers and over 60 is, I would characterise as abysmal.
So there's a lot of work that needs to be done here when safe and effective vaccines are available.
We need governments to make these affordable.
We need updated vaccines to to be to be purchasable and available to countries and to be provided to people, especially those who are at risk.
Thank you very much, Isabel Sacco, Spanish News agency.
[Other language spoken]
I would like to ask about also about the vaccines, because I heard about the shortage of of vaccines here in Swissapan.
And I wonder if this is a problem that you are observing in more generally in in Europe or in other regions in the world, If you can talk about the production of vaccines, but the stocks of, of vaccines.
And if you can comment on a little bit more if the decline of vaccines that you think is because there there is less, less concern or people are ignoring that the the disease is still circulating or if this is a problem of also access to the vaccines.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I'll start with the second part of your question first.
There certainly is a decline I think in in demand for a couple of reasons.
One, because the perception that COVID is gone is real.
It's not in the news anymore.
And of course it can't be because there are so many other crises that the world is facing, but the virus isn't gone.
So what we're asking governments to do is to put this into context, not forget what we've done with COVID.
And I think, I mean, for me, what I've seen in, in my recent travels in the last year, the last year and a half, to even discuss COVID is very, very difficult.
I really think that the trauma that we've all gone through on how extreme it was, we all want to put this in the past and that's completely understandable as an individual, but as organisations like ours, like the World Health Organisation and working with governments, we cannot put this on the back burner.
We have to continue to work with governments to ensure that the demand increases because these safe and effective vaccines, many of which have been updated with the latest strains, with the latest variants that are in circulation, are available.
Certainly, the availability of vaccines has declined, has declined substantially over the last 1218 months.
And this is because the number of producers of vaccines has declined.
It is very difficult for them to maintain the pace and certainly they don't need to maintain the pace that they that they had in 2021 and 2022.
But let's be very clear, there is a market for COVID-19 vaccines that are out there.
I don't want to hear any more that there's no market for this.
There's an entire global population of people, over 60, people with underlying condition, immunocompromised individuals that require a COVID-19 dose every 12 months.
So there is a market that is out there.
We also are working very hard to address a lot of misinformation, disinformation campaign campaigns, anti vax campaigns that are not only affecting COVID, but affecting many other vaccines that are out there that are putting many people at risk, including children for other diseases.
We need to work very hard collectively to make sure that we address concerns, we address questions, but we also tackle the demand issue.
So we are discussing with manufacturers their updated plans to produce a COVID vaccine, facts, COVID-19 vaccines.
And we would like to stimulate investment in research and development for more vaccines, not just necessarily for SARS COV 2, but more broadly for coronaviruses.
And we're also hoping that investment is maintained for the nasal vaccines that could potentially address transmission.
These would be total game changers.
If we could address transmission, we could reduce the risk of the further variance.
We could reduce the risk of infection, therefore severe disease, etcetera.
So we feel that there's a lot more work to do, which are beneficial not only, you know, in these investments for, for SARS, COV 2, but other coronaviruses that we may face in the future.
Thank you very much.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Yes, good morning and good morning to you all.
Still on the vaccine situation, 1st, I have a couple of questions.
What is WHO doing in regard to the African continent among others, I may be during the the last pandemic, not that it's gone away, Africa was particularly vulnerable and they were very poor on vaccines.
Now is anything being done in terms of trying to send vaccines to the continent that's you know and and what needs to be done to help them as as they're more vulnerable than the rich countries.
Also, there is a belief that the new strains of.
COVID are not as virulent as those in the past.
And that that if somebody gets infected, well, OK, it can be treated, you know, and they're not going to die from this.
Is this truly the case?
And could should people be so nonchalant?
And, and you have, of course, shown your alarm.
But I would like to ask you, how alarmed are you at the seeming lack of concern and lack of preparation by governments to address what could perhaps be another really awful COVID pandemic?
[Other language spoken]
So thanks very much.
On the first question, in terms of what's being done across the African continent, there's a number of things that are happening and that have been happening over the last couple of years.
We can also provide links to these answers to give you some more updates.
But first, there's a lot of work that's been happening to encourage more technology transfer so that when these vaccines are developed, that that tech that transfer is, is supplied to others that can produce vaccines.
So that if there isn't a monopoly on the development of any of these vaccines, this is true for COVID.
We would like to see this for other pathogens as well.
Second, there has been a significant increase in efforts to increase the mRNA hubs globally.
So again that we have production capacity increased on all continents and there has been some advancement in this.
This is going to take some time, but it it doesn't require just the launch of a project, but the sustained investment so that these mRNA hubs are maintained and can be used not just for SARS COV 2, but for mRNA vaccines.
3rd, there has been an increase in the capacity to have regulatory approval, ethical approval in country, including across the African continent, so that the ownership remains in the continent itself, in the countries themselves.
Again, there's a lot of work happening at country level.
4th, there's a lot of effort to address misinformation, disinformation campaigns which affect all countries, which are being disseminated through many different types of platforms, not just online, but across radio and SMS, through social media that needs to be continuously addressed.
And 5th, these are just five of many examples I could give the delivery systems for vaccine use.
We saw an entire global effort need to deliver COVID-19 vaccines for the entire life course, from the children all the way through adults, at healthcare facilities, at community facilities, in communities.
And so that delivery system is being adjusted, built on what we've done for measles, what we've done for polio, what we've done for COVID to make sure that that is strengthened should we need to continue to deliver across the entire life course.
And we will need to give vaccines across that life course.
So a number of different things are happening here and we must do better.
[Other language spoken]
I know that you are well aware of the IMB discussions across the Member States to have a pandemic accord that also needs to maintain the IHR revisions are a substantial improvement and a real needed boost for all of us working in this space.
That's another area of increase.
In terms of how alarmed I am, I think you know me quite well in terms of the way that I speak.
[Other language spoken]
We don't sit here and and and try to speak based on fear.
What we work on are scenarios.
What our worry is with such low coverage, especially in the at risk groups and I'm not saying other groups don't need to be vaccinated with such low coverage and with such large circulation.
If we were to have a variant that would be more severe, then the susceptibility of the at risk populations to develop severe disease is huge and it's huge in every country.
We saw this in previous outbreaks in almost every single country, **** income as well as low income.
We are comparing the current circulating variant to Delta to beta to Alpha, remember those to the ancestral strain.
And certainly we have seen the whole spectrum of disease from asymptomatic infection to death, even with the current variance.
But yes, absolutely we are not seeing the same level of impact.
That's not necessarily because of the virus itself.
It's because people have been infected and reinfected multiple times because people have those who are lucky to have been vaccinated, have been vaccinated.
We have treatment there.
There's better clinical care.
There's so many other reasons why we're seeing and reduced impact, but we want to keep that up in terms of the variance.
You know, the more the virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to change.
This virus is in many different animal species, not just the white tailed deer, but a large number of animals where we're seeing this reverse psleonosis, human to animals, animals to humans.
These viruses can change and we can have a mutation that would make it more severe.
[Other language spoken]
And so we have to be ready to up, to surge up and to surge down as as is necessary.
But because of this fatigue, but because of this, these challenges that we face with all of these other crises, Kovid doesn't have the attention that it needs.
Now, I would argue that on an everyday basis, people out there, you don't have to worry about this on a day-to-day basis.
But we used to say, know your risk, lower your risk.
And that still remains true.
But to be able to lower your risk, governments need to support you in doing so.
But we all have a role to play.
So if you are of an older age group, if you have underlying conditions, consider wearing that mask.
If you're around others.
I see a lot of people, especially when we just come back from some home, leave a lot of people wearing masks when in airports.
These are common sense things.
Use your hand gel that's good for lots of different pathogens that are out there.
And there are many pathogens circulated.
Make sure you're updated on your booster.
Know where you can get treatment.
Talk to your medical care provider.
But governments need to continue to step up and continue to invest in pandemic preparedness for many pathogens, but also deal with the current risk of COVID-19.
Robin Miller, the French news agency.
[Other language spoken]
Just just on the vaccines, have they, have the vaccines improved over the last couple of years?
What, what research has gone into to make them more effective than they than they were before?
And are they, are they any more effective on transmission particularly?
[Other language spoken]
So there's quite a bit of research that's happening on COVID-19 vaccines.
So we look at vaccine effectiveness and we have a group that does systematic reviews looking at vaccine effectiveness.
It's a very complicated space because there are many different vaccines, many different producers of vaccines.
There are many vaccines that are based on the ancestral strain.
We have vaccines that were based on the BA1BA2BA45.
We have vaccines that have been updated now for XBB and we have vaccines that are coming online that will have an adjuvant, A variance including not adjuvant, a very antigen, excuse me, based on JN .1 sub lineages.
So when we look at this whole space, in fact yesterday I asked my team to give me or the broader team to give me a briefing on where we are with vaccine effectiveness because to be honest, the number of studies that are ongoing to look at vaccine effectiveness have decreased over time.
But it is still something that we are constantly looking at in terms of vaccine performance.
The way that we are trying to improve them are two, two ways to, I'll give 2 examples.
[Other language spoken]
So our technical advisory group for vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine composition, TAG KOVAC, meets every six months or so to look at the performance of the vaccines in terms of its protection against severe disease and death.
That's the outcome that we are measuring because that's what they're really intended for.
And we make recommendations based on the circulating strains, what we know may be coming down the pipeline.
And so as the vaccines are updated, the goal is to have more protection, more breath of protection for the people that get those updated vaccines.
Right now we see XPV vaccines being used in the number of countries and we're working with those countries to get updates on the vaccine effectiveness.
We don't have data yet on effectiveness against JN .1 circulating sub lineages, but if you hear anything from me and if the general public is listening to this vaccination with any of the available safe, effective approved vaccines will protect against severe disease and death will increase your will lower your risk of developing severe disease that they will also lower your risk of developing post COVID condition.
I would hope to have more investment in vaccines against transmission.
The vaccines do the current vaccines do have some impact on transmission, but certainly not enough to be able to stop the transmission.
So they do have some effect, but really their main goal is to prevent severe disease and death.
Thank you very much.
Are there any any other question?
Yes, you have a follow up beauty, but it's not on COVID, it's for Tariq.
[Other language spoken]
Can you stay, I don't know maybe if you want to stay also in the podium, you want to ask your question and then we will wrap up with The Who it's just on the inbox because we also the knew that maybe okay.
But my question is just about the the committee that the emergency committee that maybe Doctor Chargers can and call.
So do you know if it is going to be called?
[Other language spoken]
So I can, I can tell you what the DG said the other day is that he's considering calling an emergency committee for the evolving situation of M pox.
I mean, certainly we are seeing an expanding outbreak across the continent and in particular, the concern is around this clade one virus that we are seeing a number of countries not just within DRC, but a number of countries in the surrounding areas are reporting cases.
Now this is something that we've expected.
And so certainly there's increased awareness, there's increased surveillance in these countries, but the reporting of them, it's difficult for us to understand the epidemiology of what's really unfolding, whether there is, you know, a substantial rise in cases or it's just a matter of increased awareness.
Having said that, certainly something is happening here.
What we would like to better understand is more, much more detail on the epidemiology and the differences in transmission, because we are seeing transmission as zoonotic transmission.
[Other language spoken]
We are seeing transmission between people and families.
The young children are being affected and Clade 1 and particularly this clade 1B is deadlier than Clade 2.
Having said that, there's so much that can be done right now, whether we have an EC or not or whether a public health emergency of international concern is declared or not.
In terms of the fundamentals of public health, of EPI surveillance, stronger surveillance case finding, strong risk communication, community engagement about prevention and preventative activities, working very closely with our HIV partners, making sure that people who show up at healthcare, whether it's a community clinic or anywhere else, are receiving the right information and the targeted use of vaccines.
So there are a lot of vaccine.
Well, they're not a lot of vaccines.
There are some vaccines that are licenced that can be used for mpox.
We're working with Afro, we're working with affected countries to see how they could be their targeted use in the at risk groups can be used as part of the response.
The DG is considering all of this as he does regularly.
We brief him regularly and when he is ready to make a decision, if he's going to call it an emergency committee, I'm sure we will.
We will let you know ASAP, but the decision will be with him.
Maria, I can't thank you too much for this briefing.
Please come back anytime And Tarek, the journalists are asking for the notes if it's possible.
It's been sent.
It's been sent Fantastic.
OK, so I have it in the chat, but thank you for your rapid response.
Thank you very much again, pleasure.
Good luck in the next month.
So we will all follow your advice, I hope.
And let me turn to my right.
If I, I look at the number of rainy days we've had in Geneva last month, I, I can't believe my years that you are going to tell us about the extreme ease of the month of July.
But I'm pretty sure you've got good arguments for this, Claire.
And you are here with Alberto Silva, with the WMO climate expert who's on Zoom.
I can see him.
Don't know if he can be.
If we can see Albert, I can see that he's connected.
But maybe I will start with you.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
So we start with you, Claire, and then we will go to to Albert Silva.
[Other language spoken]
Good morning, everybody.
Summer has finally arrived in, in, in, in Geneva.
But obviously we should not think that just because, you know, Switzerland or parts of Switzerland were unusually cool and wet, that doesn't mean that you know, this is the case for the rest of the world.
So the World Meteorological Organisation today we will issue a detailed web note on our web on our website.
We've sent it to you now just a few minutes ago on the extreme heat, which continued throughout July.
We saw a hot June, continued throughout July with really, really, really devastating impacts on communities, on people's health, on ecosystems, also on on economies.
So extreme heat really has a domino effect across society.
The world's hottest day on record, on recent record at least was registered.
This was the 22nd of July, and all of this is really yet another unwelcome indication 1 of many of the extent that greenhouse gases are in fact changing our climate.
To put it in context, global average temperatures for the past 13 months now.
So that's June 2023 to June 2024 have set new monthly records.
We're still awaiting the data for the month of July, which will, you know, confirm whether, if you know that that extreme exceptional trend is continuing in July.
And it underlines, underlines the urgency of the recent call to action on extreme heat by the UN Secretary General.
And if you recall, when he launched this call to action, he said that Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere.
My colleague Alvaro Silva will give you more details.
But just to give you continue with the overview.
So in the past year, we've seen widespread extended intense heat, heat waves just about every single continent of the world.
At least ten countries in the past year have recorded daily temperatures of more than 50°C, more than one location.
So you think about it here today is probably late 20s.
So add an extra 20°C to that and you know, you can well imagine this is this is too hot for the body to handle.
Death Valley in California which is known to be the world's hottest, hottest place.
You know, it does hold a long standing record for being the world's hottest place.
That registered a record average monthly temperature of 42.5°C which is 108.5°F.
That is day and night combined for the entire month.
We at WMO, we don't measure monthly temperature records.
We rather measure, you know, individual daily extremes.
But according to our special rapporteur on this, who's a gentleman called Randy Serveny, he said that this does, you know, seem to be reliably, you know, the, the, the new monthly record, although we will not be conducting A detailed investigation.
And as Alvaro will tell you, even the frozen sheets of Antarctica are really, really, really feeling the heat.
What can we do about it?
[Other language spoken]
We as the World Meteorological Organisation will obviously be following up on the UN Secretary General's call to action.
We our contribution is in the implementation of better heat health early warnings and action plans.
And just to give you an idea from the report which was launched by the UN Secretary General, the global scale up of heat health warning systems for 57 countries alone has the potential to save an estimated 98,000 lives a year.
So, you know, every life lost is one too many when you, you know, when you're talking about nearly 100,000 lives that we could save each year, you know that, that is, you know that we really, we really could do it really could make a difference.
Climate adaptation alone is not enough, as we keep saying time and time again, You know, we need to tackle the root 'cause we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions and we need to do it now.
So that's from me.
I'll pass over to Alva Silva, who's based in Lisbon and he's, you know, an expert who advises WMO on on climate and heat issues.
[Other language spoken]
Thanks, Alva, to you.
[Other language spoken]
Good morning, everyone.
[Other language spoken]
So as you mentioned, we just had the warmest day on recent history.
That was 22 July and 23 July was very close in terms of temperature value globally.
[Other language spoken]
And the one reason for this, of course we need to understand this is the long term warming trend induced by human activities.
But what another important factor that led to this peak in global temperature war was related with an heat wave that we had and Antarctica.
And yeah, this is something that is not very common.
It is the second such heat wave to heat the continent in last two years.
And yeah, it contributed to this record global temperatures now and also in early July 2023.
The reason is still under research.
But yeah, it seems to be related with the daily sea ice extent that continue very low in June 2024 in this area of of the world.
And this follows a record lowest extent that we had in Antarctica or in terms of sea ice in 2023.
If I give you a regional overview of in terms of the heat waves and extreme heat worldwide, and this is important because this period of the year is the warmest season in most of Northern hemisphere countries.
So the when we have a neat wave on top of the warmest season, then the impacts are very severe like we already noticed in in many countries.
So in Asia, July was the warmest on record in Bahrain, China and Japan and the second warmest in India.
And I'm not referring to all the countries, these are some just some examples.
There were persisting and repeated heat waves in the region including in Pakistan and Islamic Republic of Iran that in both suffered repeated impacts from this heat wives and in Iran the later the this it later heat wave forced to pull schools because of of the heat.
This is just an example of the impacts that the population suffered in Africa.
We also saw this important impacts in terms of human health and and that's in Morocco, there was 2 consecutive E12 with record temperatures.
The second D12 from 22 to 25 July was particular intense.
So this was leading to some temperature record in in some weather stations in Europe.
Many areas of the Mediterranean, Mediterranean regions and Balkans were gripped by extensive wives in July that caused also casualties and impact public health.
So we can refer to a rapid attribution studied by scientists in world weather attribution that connected this heat wives to human in this climate change.
So in fact the the extreme heat is one of the phenomenon that we have more confidence attributing to human activities and to release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
So this was the case again for this specific example, but there are many other studies that suggest that this increasing intense and frequent heat waves are due to to greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere due to human activities.
Yeah, July was also the warmest month in many countries of Europe, in Greece, Angaris, Slovenia, Croatian, Bulgaria, Bulgaria, just to mention some of these countries.
And one thing that is also important to highlight is that this is not a specific isolated case.
So I can give you an example for Greece the during the last four years, the three were most July were records.
So this was in the last eight years.
So three of the for warmest July war recording last four years in Greece.
But we can even look at this Centennial stations and this is a programme managed by WMO where we have many recognised long term stations with observations longer than 100 years.
And for instance in spine the Barcelona's fibre observatory records a new maximum temperature of 40°.
And also in France, July was not a warm month, but the end of July, we, we saw an important and intense heat wave that also impacts the athletes and spectators at the Paris Olympics.
But it's not only in Europe and Asia and Africa.
We also see this extreme heat in North America, square mentioned.
We had this record mostly temperature for for that valley.
But another important thing to highlight is that the heat is becoming more persistent in in many parts of the world.
For instance, in Las Vegas, we had a new record of 43 consecutive days with maximum temperatures of 105°F, that is 40.5°C or higher.
And the previous record in 2017 was 25 days.
So just to to give you a good idea of this increasing, increasing and prolonged heat in in parts of of the world, in the yes, again in the United States of of America, the impacts on population were very **** in terms of affected population by heat.
So we had on 1st of August more than 160 million people, that's about half of the United States population under heat alerts.
But it's not only in in Northern Hemisphere that we are experienced this extreme heat even in South America.
And it's winter time.
In South America, we had temperatures above 30° and even above 35° in parts of Bolivia, Paraguay and southern Brazil and Uruguay.
This is quite unusual for this time of the year.
And anomalies were higher than 10°C in some in some parts, yeah.
And also this led to some impacts, including including on wildfires, the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service referred that Bolivia and Brazil, Amazon, Feist and precedent fire activity.
So this is just a glance of what we had during this last month in many parts of the world.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Alvaro.
And I just would like, I mean, Clara's mentioned the Secretary General's call to action and extreme heat.
You will remember that this has been released on the 25th of July.
We've sent you all the information about this very important document and please refer to it and, and, and we can send it to you again if needed.
So I'm open the floor to questions now if there is any in the room.
I don't see any end up in the platform research line.
Voice of America.
[Other language spoken]
One, do you have a cumulative figure of how many people have died from this extreme heat throughout the world or perhaps regional numbers?
[Other language spoken]
But anyway, this is my question.
And then Claire, you were very dramatic when you said what needs to be done is to adapt, adapt, adapt.
Could you be specific about your suggestions?
How do people adapt to this?
I don't know how many can afford air conditioning.
[Other language spoken]
Which is one of the things that in the report of the Secretary General is specifically mentioned as a concrete things not to do.
And he gives the amount of energy and the savings in pollution that could be done if we were just slowing a little bit the cooling worldwide.
So exactly the things that doesn't need to be done for adaptation.
But I don't know if who wants to start.
Maybe I can, I can, I can, I can start on the final question, adaptation.
We can do a lot through heat health early warnings in places such as India and Pakistan where you used to get, you know, very, very **** mortality figures due to, due to heat waves.
India, in particular cities in India have now introduced quite strong heat health action plans.
What does it mean in practise?
It means you can, you know, change the, the, the working hours of the, of the day.
This is something the International Labour Organisation has picked up on.
[Other language spoken]
But you know, really, you know, staying trying to sort of protect yourself, yourselves in the in the hottest days, in the hottest hours of the of the day in, in developed countries, we have more tools at our, you know, at our disposal.
You know, one of them is, and I think the Swiss are doing it right now, you know, making swimming pools free of charge to, you know, to the less well off to elderly opening, you know, libraries for longer shopping centres which have air conditioning.
Air conditioning does have quite a heavy carbon footprint.
So certainly, as the UN Secretary General said, it's not, you know, it's not, it's not, it's not necessarily the solution.
I see lots of posts on social media and I know it sounds corny, but you know, plant a tree.
The we have what we call the urban heat island effect, which means that temperatures in sort of heavily built up concrete areas where you've got lots of roads, you've got lots of, lots of buildings, not much green cover.
Temperatures there are markedly higher than in in greener areas.
So just to give a practical example, if you have a street which is lined by trees and a street which is, has no trees, you know, the, the temperatures on the street with no trees will will be, you know, will be, will, will, will be higher.
But as I said, it's really we as WMO, it's all about early warnings and informing people to to, you know, to act on those warnings and to take, to take early action.
In terms of the statistics, it's Alvaro might be able to say more, but it's very, very difficult at the time to get accurate statistics.
And extreme heat is one of the big underreported causes of, of death from weather, climate and water extremes.
You know, we're pretty good at at measuring mortality figures from tropical cyclones, from from floods, from rain, less good at doing it from extreme heat because quite often it's a compound factor.
You know, it does target people who've got underlying health issues, respiratory problems.
And quite often, as we either countries don't have the reporting mechanisms or quite often, and we saw this case in Europe a couple of years ago, that initial estimates were dramatically increased about a year later, you know, when they when they when they did a more thorough assessment.
So that's quite a long answer to your to your question.
The short answer is no, we don't, we don't, we don't know at this, at this at this stage, some of the heat related deaths always due to drown, also due to drowning.
You know, people will well, you know, jump into water and get into difficulties.
And so quite often in for instance, in the UK, you get, you know, heat related deaths due to drowning.
Anyway, over over to Alvaro.
Yeah, thank you for the questions.
[Other language spoken]
We provide already a very comprehensive overview.
[Other language spoken]
Yeah, it's true that for regarding the second question, it's very difficult to or I would say near impossible to have a real time estimation on that's related to heat.
So the impacts of heat waves are not always immediately visible.
So it takes time to you have the eximates of the excess mortality.
That's the way it is this that are calculated.
So it's not there are reported deaths, but sometimes we need to to to many times we need to to look at the mortality course and eximates the excess deaths that compared to the normal period.
That's the the way it is done to estimate this additional deaths related to heat.
[Other language spoken]
And it's very true that in some regions this is also underreported.
So the the actual figures on mortality of related to it extremes are likely much higher than we have in some disasters later bias that that's why it's not not possible to have this in near real time.
And sometimes even the the the year after the studies are still being conducted to have more robust assessment on the estimated deaths.
[Other language spoken]
And on terms of, of the adaptation to heat, I would just like to to compliment that's something that we we realised on the European state of climate report.
This is specifically for Europe, but perhaps can be also the same in other regions is that people are aware of the of the heat wave.
So we had a very good progress in terms of early warnings to eat.
So we can anticipate the occurrence of it wives 1-2 weeks in advance.
But then people sometimes are not aware of the risk that it poses to their health.
And this is something that there are still some work to, to be done so that people realise that it is a silent killer and it's not sometimes a visible danger.
Then people needs to to have more, to have more, to be more aware of this, of this risk.
So it's also important to highlight the, the, the role of the individual actions, of course, on top of other actions at urban planning, Land Management and all the the rest that needs to be continued and accelerated because the the extreme heat impacts are also accelerating.
[Other language spoken]
And maybe Lisa, just of course, I can't speak exactly for WHO, but when the Secretary General released the call to action on extreme heat, WHO also issued the press release where they were saying that the climate crisis is driving temperatures up to unbearable levels all over the world, leading to heat related deaths.
And they were giving the figure of heat stress as the leading cause of weather related deaths.
Estimates show that approximately 489,000 heat related deaths occurred every year between 2000 and 2019.
It's not very recent data, but it gives I think a good approximation of the huge effect of this, of this heat related indices.
And the Secretary General's to action really concentrated on the positive and very concrete measures that could be implemented to care for the vulnerable, protect workers, boosted resilience using data and science and limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°.
So I think that there is a lot there to to give you information.
As I said, the the data may not be that recent, but it gives you a very good idea of the IT and you do phenomena.
Any other question on this important subject, I don't see any.
So thank you very much, Claire.
Thank you, Alvaro and thank you for participating from Lisbon.
I'll go now to our last guest of the day, Paula Fitzgerald.
Paula is the IFRC Head of Country Cluster delegation for Ethiopia and Djibouti.
She's connecting from Addis Ababa, but I understand from my colleagues that there are a few issues with the connection.
So I hope we will be able to see and hear Paula.
[Other language spoken]
Oh, that's perfect.
Thank you very much for being there.
Paula, you have an update for our journalists on the landscapes in in sorry, landslides in Ethiopia.
Please have the floor and we will open the floor to questions afterwards.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
So 30 pregnant and lactating women died in the landslides in Ethiopia at the end of last month.
30 that is, I start with that fact because numbers hide individuals, their lives and their stories.
But of at least 243 people who we know died, 30 were expecting or recently delivered.
So there is something major we know about their stories, their lives, and their lives that were wiped away in moments.
It is for those left behind, the thousands of people that the IFRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have launched the appeal.
I'm here to talk about this morning.
But first, the background.
On the 21st and 22nd of July, heavy rains triggered a series of devastating landslides in Ethiopia's remote Gopher zone in the South.
The first was bad enough that it was the 2nd and the 3rd landslides that caused the most damage.
That meant rescuers themselves got caught in the successive waves.
So far, 243 bodies have been recovered.
Ethiopia is no stranger to landslides, but that number makes this the deadliest landslide event in Ethiopia's known history.
The aftermath of this disaster has been devastating.
Over 15 1/2 thousand people in the path of the landslides need to be relocated urgently.
So far, some 3600 people have moved to safer areas and there's plans to move another 2900 very shortly.
The Ethiopian Red Cross Society, or the ERCS, along with the IFRC, sent an assessment team to go far last week.
They found a community completely overwhelmed by grief.
Families have been torn apart, children have lost parents and parents have lost children.
The region continues to face severe weather, with ongoing heavy rains increasing the risk of further landslides.
And there's reports coming out that there's been another event in another area of southern Ethiopia just in the last overnight.
So we're trying to find out more information about that.
The rugged terrain and makes the rescue and recovery operations difficult.
There's also the risk of diseases spreading.
The southern regions of Ethiopia have already seen almost 300,000 malaria cases since the start of 2024 and more than 300 measles cases.
Dire conditions in the landslide areas make acceleration of those numbers likely.
But despite these challenges, local branches of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society have mobilised quickly, providing essential support and working with authorities to maximise our rescue and recovery and support efforts.
The needs are immense.
Vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant and lactating mothers, the elderly, people with disabilities and students who've lost their families urgently need support.
The ERCS has been providing food, non food items and essential household goods, but more but more helps needed.
That's why on August the 2nd, the IFRC and ERCS launched an emergency appeal for 6,000,000 Swiss Francs.
This funding is crucial to support immediate life saving assistance and early recovery activities for 25 1/2 thousand of the most vulnerable people affected by the landslides along with the wind, storms and floods that are under way this season.
Our focus areas include emergency shelter, water and sanitation, psychological support and basic household items.
[Other language spoken]
We're committed to a long term approach, integrating emergency shelter with long term housing solutions and focusing on health and well-being, livelihood recovery and cash assistance.
Continuing to build on ERC SS Disaster Risk Reduction capacity will be integral to this response as its branches extend its community outreach in this vital and life saving sector, especially in **** risk, disaster prone localities.
This comprehensive multi sector approach will help communities rebuild and recover beyond the emergency phase.
The situation in southern Ethiopia is dire and the need for international support is urgent.
I'm really hoping by being here today you can help highlight what's happened and what's needed.
Thank you and I'm happy to respond to questions.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
And I look at the journalist here in the room.
Don't see hands up or on the platform, Lisa.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Lisa, you have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Miss Fitzgerald, would you please first send us your notes, but, like, right away, Not at the end of the day.
Otherwise, seriously, I won't be able to do a report on this.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
As to my questions, you may have already mentioned it, but it may have gone by how many people actually are affected by this landslide?
And are you able to reach all of the the survivors and the victims of this disaster?
And is, is this a fairly usual phenomenon that is having having landslides in Ethiopia or is this a particularly perhaps not a one off, but a particularly serious disaster which has occurred?
[Other language spoken]
Yes, 15 thousand 5500 people have been affected.
One of the needs is because the area's unstable.
Now they need that population needs to be moved urgently away.
Hence the need for emergency and longer term shelter solutions.
So yes, land slides happen every year in Ethiopia, but this is exceptional.
This was a particularly tragic incidents because they were successive landslides, so the people had gone to help dig the the neighbours out of the first landslide were inundated by the 2nd and 3rd.
So it's a particularly tragic incidents, but landslides do occur routinely in the country.
And so Disaster Risk Reduction and risk and management is key to ERC SS work to help mitigate the impact.
Thank you very much.
And I see Nina Lini has already answered to you, Lisa saying that they will send the the notes.
Any other question to IFRC?
I don't see any.
So thank you very much, Paula.
Good luck with your important work in this quite catastrophic situation.
I just have a couple of no, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
I said it was the last one, but Zayna is waiting for giving us a few information about the press conference.
And sorry Zena, but I thought you were in the room, but I think you are on Zoom, so I will ask my colleague to give you the floor.
Let me see if Zena is connected.
Yes, there you go.
Good morning and sorry for this.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Good morning colleagues.
[Other language spoken]
Before moving forward with the the information that I'd like to share with you, I just wanted to chime in on the very important issue of the impact of excessive heat on on populations in the world.
As my colleague Claire mentioned, the ILO has also done extensive work on the impact of extreme heat on workers.
And we've also tallied the what we estimate to be the financial cost in terms of lost revenue and medical bills as a result of of illnesses and in some cases death for for work.
As Alessandra mentioned, we have an upcoming embargoed press conference that we will be holding on on Thursday, the 8th of August.
It's going to be online and these during this press conference we will be unveiling the findings of our international of our global employment trend for youth report.
And now the content of the press conference as well as the report itself and the news offer that will we are putting together will be under embargo ago until International Youth Day, which happens to be Monday, the 12th of August.
And we of course will be sharing all of that with you ahead of time.
Thank you for those who've already emailed to request that the the findings of the report will be presented by our Director General, Doctor Shabba Humbo, as well as our Assistant Director General, Mia Seppo for employment.
And we will also have a technical colleague available to answer any sort of technically or complicated questions that may come up.
We will be sharing employment trends and numbers by region, looking at Africa, Arab states, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas, as well as by gender.
And there will be some marked differences between young men and young women.
We're also going to be looking at the neat rate, which is young people who are not in employment, not in education, not in training N EE T also regionally and and by by gender.
This, of course, this report comes at a time when there's growing uncertainty and instability around the world that is affecting the youth.
And, and therefore we'll also be therefore looking at the impact that all of this is happening on the, the impact that all of this is having on, on young people around the world.
It's also the 20th anniversary of the report this year.
So in addition to the numbers that I've mentioned, we're also going to be looking at trends that we've identified over the last two decades or or 20 years.
And also we will include recommendations on how to deal with some of the stubborn or vexing or, or structural issues that we identify.
So we look forward to seeing you online on on Thursday in the morning.
And please do reach out if you would like, if you've got any questions or would like to set up a, an interview ahead of the 12th, which is when the embargo is lifted.
Thank you very much.
And then back to Alessandra.
[Other language spoken]
Thanks for your patience.
I see Yuri has a question for you.
The demand the Northwest San Bargo.
And yes, if you could, you same the same.
[Other language spoken]
So there are several requests for this.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I'm just left with a couple of announcements for you.
Yesterday the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination open its 113th session and this afternoon they will they will start the review of the report of Venezuela.
Other countries which will be looked at during this session are Iran, Pakistan, Bosnia Herzegovina and United Kingdom, Iraq and Belarus.
We don't have yet to date for the next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament, which has entered the last week in its third and last part of its 2024 session, which will last until the 13th of September.
This morning the the Conference is having a meeting of its subsidiary body too, the one on the prevention of nuclear war, as you know, under the Presidency of Ireland.
This is what I had for you.
If there are no further questions and I don't see any.
Thank you very much to you all and I'll see you on Friday.
[Other language spoken]