UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 22 September 2020

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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing

1:09:04

MP4

547.7 MB

22-09-2020

Press Conferences | WHO , WFP , UNCTAD , ILO

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 22 September 2020

ENG

UN General Assembly

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the United Nations General Assembly would start its general debate at 3 p.m. Geneva time today, with a direct webcast at webtv.un.org. The Secretary-General would deliver a major speech, to be followed by those of Heads of State. The list of speakers could be found on the website of the General Assembly and the UN Journal. Among today’s speakers would be the Heads of State of Brazil, the United States, Russia, and France. A ceremony to mark the 75^th anniversary of the UN had been held the previous day; the Secretary-General had delivered a speech highlighting the success of the Organization and the challenges ahead. The UN75 report had been launched and was available online.

45^th Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), said that today at 10 a.m. the Council would discuss the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures (sanctions). The President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) would then present his annual report to the Council, to be followed by the presentations of thematic reports, covering capital punishment, indigenous peoples, the human rights of migrants, etc. Some 12 reports would be addressed in one statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. The general debate on item 3 would then commence, with 100 States and 100 NGOs as speakers. An oral update on the situation in Myanmar would be heard this afternoon, to be followed by an interactive discussion; the report on Syria would then be presented, and also be followed by an interactive discussion. On 23 September, Burundi, South Sudan, and Venezuela would all be addressed.

The detailed Human Rights Council’s agenda can be found here.

COVID-19

Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that a new WHO report showed that 20 per cent of all cardiovascular diseases were attributable to tobacco use, while as many as 67 per cent of COVID-19 fatalities in Italy, for example, had been suffering from high blood pressure. The links were very strong between cessation of smoking and the battle against COVID-19. A press release would be shared shortly.

Ms. Harris informed that every year, experts decided which strains needed to be put in the seasonal influenza vaccine. The process was currently under way for 2020, and the result would be duly communicated.

Ms. Harris said that the COVID-19 Explorer App was a new app that provided detailed information on statistics, visualizations on testing and policies, and regional breakdowns on trends. The app had been used internally at the WHO, but now it was now available to the general public here.

Answering questions, Ms. Harris explained that it was unlikely that the WHO would any time soon be holding physical/open press conferences given the current coronavirus trend in Europe.

WHO would not endorse any vaccine until it had been proven to be absolutely safe and effective, stressed Ms. Harris. WHO’s position on how COVID-19 primarily spreads had not changed: it was through droplets, which was why masks, social distancing and hand hygiene were strongly recommended. In crowded indoor spaces, with poor ventilation and a lot of shouting or singing, there had been cases of aerosol transmission. While one meter was the minimum recommended distance, the more the distance, the safer it was. The duration of the exposure was also important, explained Ms. Harris.

Regarding COVAX facilities, Ms. Harris said it was still a work in progress; the fact that two-thirds of countries had already signed up was encouraging. It was all about solidarity; about vaccinating appropriate people at an appropriate time around the world.

Ms. Harris stressed that the WHO’s recommendation for quarantine remained at 14 days, as it had been proven that incubation of the virus could last as long as 12 days.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), added that on 30 September, there would be a high-level event at the General Assembly on COVID-19 vaccines and ACT Accelerator. The Secretary-General was expected to participate.

Food situation in Mozambique

Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that the WFP was extremely concerned about the escalating conflict and deteriorating food security situation in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, where over 310,000 people had fled their homes and villages, abandoning their crops and leaving them completely reliant on humanitarian assistance.

The humanitarian crisis had worsened due to the increased insecurity; thousands had also fled, as refugees, to neighbouring Tanzania. Cabo Delgado currently had the second highest number of registered COVID-19 cases in Mozambique. Cabo Delgado was a farming area, producing crops, and when there was violence, farmers hardly put any seeding in the ground; the next harvest season could therefore already be compromised. More than half of the children under five were chronically malnourished. Despite significant operational challenges, WFP, in collaboration with the Government, planned to reach 310,000 people each month in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa with food, vouchers and nutrition support.

Ms. Phiri emphasized that the WFP urgently required USD 4.7 million per month to assist those internally displaced in northern Mozambique. Without additional funding the WFP would be forced to reduce food rations as early as December.

More information is available here.

Greek alphabet for hurricane names

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), reiterated that the 2020 hurricane season had been so active that there was now a need to start using the Greek alphabet for new names. This week, Alpha, a subtropical storm, had been registered over Portugal, while Beta was having an impact over the Texas coast. This was only the second time for the need to use the Greek alphabet.

Arctic sea ice levels

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said the General Assembly this week would hold a debate on climate action. Overnight, the WMO had received figures showing that the Arctic sea ice had reached the lowest level this year, which was the second lowest summer sea ice extent; only 2012 had seen a lower level. What was seen this year confirmed a long-term trend over the last 14 years. Ms. Nullis quoted a veteran Arctic ice observer, who said the threshold meant that “the Arctic was more ocean than ice”. The Siberian heatwave from above and warmer waters from below were both melting the ice, said Ms. Nullis. An information note with details would be sent out to the media shortly.

Geneva announcements

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed about the launch of the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 entitled Tackling illicit financial flows for sustainable development in Africa. The report would be published on 28 September; the embargo would be lifted at 7 p.m. Geneva time. The report provided a very comprehensive analysis of those outflows which included illicit capital flight, tax and commercial practices like misinvoicing of trade shipments and criminal activities such as illegal markets, corruption or theft. Curbing illicit financial flows could hugely help reduce the financing gap to achieve the SDGS on the African continent; the report explained how.

Rosalind Yarde, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), announced an embargoed press conference on the 6th edition of ILO Monitor on COVID-19 and the World of Work, which would be held virtually on 23 September at 11 a.m. The speakers would be Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, and Sangheon Lee, Director, ILO Employment Policy Department. The embargo on the report and the press release, which would be shared today, would be lifted at 1 p.m. on 23 September.

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), informed that later today there would be a press release on a new low temperature record for northern hemisphere.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that on, 24 September at 10 a.m., the Permanent Mission of Uzbekistan would hold a press conference on the speech of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, H.E. Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances was currently holding an online session; the interactive dialogue with Iraq would now take place on 5 and 7 October.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child was also holding its 85th session virtually and would hold its next public meeting for the closure of the session on 1st October at 5 p.m.

Teleprompter

All right.

Good morning everyone to this by leak we briefing of Tuesday the 22nd of September.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Before we get to that, let me just highlight a couple of things with regards to the General Assembly which is taking place in New York these days.

Today, of course, is the general debate.

It will be starting at 9:00 AM New York Times or 3:00 PM Geneva time.

The Secretary General will, of course, deliver a major speech at the opening of this general debate and then he will be followed by the various member states.

The list of speakers can be found on the website of the General Assembly or on the Journal of the United Nation.

I think it's journal.un.org.

But here I can just tell you that today, after the Secretary Secretary general has spoken, addresses are expected by the heads of state of Brazil, the United States, Turkey, China, Chile, South Africa, Cuba, Russian Federation, Jordan, the Republic of Korea, the State of Qatar, Philippines, Iran and France.

That's what I see on the agenda today.

And you have, of course, for the other days, also the list of speakers.

We'll give you updates if any do come in from our colleagues in New York.

Of course, yesterday and you should have received the remarks which we will have distributed to everyone.

There was a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the UN.

Secretary General Antonio Guterres did speak in person at the ceremony and highlighted some of the organisation accomplishments.

Never in modern history have we gone so many years without a military conflict between the major powers, he said.

Most recently, he added, unanimous support for the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement provided an inspiring vision for the 21st century.

But today, the Secretary General said we have a surplus of multilateral challenges and a deficit of multilateral solutions.

He welcomed the General Assembly's 75th Anniversary Declaration and highlighted that the more than 1,000,000 people who participated in the global Conversation this year express how they see the United Nations as a vehicle to make the world a better place.

He called for a network multilateralism in which the UN family, international financial institutions, regional organisations, trading blocks and others work together more closely and more effectively.

You can find those remarks online and also yesterday the UN75 report was launched and that is also available online for those who are interested.

That's what I have for you at the moment.

Let's get right into our agenda with Rolando Gomez from the Human Rights Council, who will give you an update on what's going on at the council today.

Thank you, Rael.

Good morning, everybody.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I'll be brief just to outline the goings on at the Human Rights Council and the Assembly Hall.

This morning at 10 AM, the Council began with a presentation of a report by the new Special Rapporteur on negative impact of unilateral course of measures often referred to as sanctions.

And her report is Alina Duhan is the name of the new rapporteur.

DUDOUHAN is the last name Alina ALENA.

The report spells out her mandate, her vision and how she how she takes on this this new role.

In about an hour from now, we'll hear from the president of the Economic and Social Council, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan.

He will provide his annual briefing to the Council, this year's briefing, which is always in September, it suddenly touches on the **** level political Forum on sustainable development that was held this July.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Afterwards we'll hear the presentation of reports, thematic reports by the Secretary General and the **** Commissioner for Human Rights as presented by the Deputy **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al Nashif.

There are several, several reports on various thematic issues covering capital punishment.

We have indigenous peoples, artificial intelligence, terrorism, human rights of migrants and so on.

There are about 12 reports being addressed in one, one statement by the Deputy **** Commissioner.

Thereafter we'll have a presentation by the report by the by the reporter of the working Group on the Right to development.

This is on their latest, the latest activities.

And then we begin a general debate on Item 3, which touches on various human rights, civil and political rights, economic, social, cultural rights.

This is a a very long sort of debate.

We have roughly 100 speaker states alone and about that same number for NGOs.

So what will happen is around 12:00, we'll start this general debate, which will carry over to Thursday.

So again, this is going to take a few hours, but it'll have to carry over for the following reasons.

We have fixed times for various country specific reports starting this afternoon at 3:00 PM.

The Council will hear this afternoon, 3:00 PM, an oral update by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, that's Thomas Andrews.

He did present an oral update in at the June session.

This is a second interaction with the Council.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

It's an oral update, so no written report.

We'll hear from the concerned country and this will be followed by an interactive discussion.

So that starts at 3, roughly 4:30 or so.

We'll hear a presentation of the report from the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

Now this report as you know was launched last week at a press conference.

So this report will be presented by the Chairperson, Paulo Pinero.

This is all virtual and will be followed by concerned country statement and interactive discussion as usual.

Just looking very briefly at tomorrow, the following country situations will be will be addressed through presentations of reports in this order, Commission of Inquiry in Burundi, Commission on Human Rights for South Sudan and then the fact finding Mission on Venezuela.

I don't have precise times, but Burundi, South Sudan, Venezuela all wedged in tomorrow.

And then at the end of the day, we have an annual panel discussion on the rights of indigenous peoples, which the annual theme this year touches on protection of indigenous human rights defenders.

So quite a lot going on in the Assembly hall over the next couple of days.

I think I'll leave it there and happy to take any questions you might have.

Thank you, Rolando.

Let's move on to Claire Nollis from the World Meteorological Organisation, who is here to tell you about how the Arctic sea ice is the second lowest on record.

It sounds very pure, occupying.

So let's hear what Claire has to tell us.

OK, as we all know, obviously the UN General Assembly is taking place this week.

One of the features will be a **** level debate on climate action on Thursday.

One of the main one of the big indicators of climate change and underlining the need for climate action is sea ice.

Now overnight we received figures which indicated that Arctic sea ice has reached its lowest minimum extent for the year.

This is after the summer season melt and it's the second second smallest minimum extent on record.

The record low was observed in 2012.

So this year we've seen the second smallest sea ice extent, the summer sea ice extent, the and there's different sets of data indicating this.

The US National Snow and Ice Date Data Centre said that according to its figures, the sea ice extent was 374,000,000 three, sorry, 3.74 million square kilometres.

These figures were confirmed by Germany's Alfred Wagner Institute, which uses slightly different measurements.

This is the extent.

So these figures don't measure the thickness, the volume of the sea ice.

And we at the World Meteorological Organisation, we do try to factor in the the volume, the thickness as well as the extent as an indicator of climate change.

What we've seen this year obviously confirms what we've been seeing in previous years.

It's part unfortunately of a long term trend.

The last 14 years, so that's 2007 to 2020, have seen the lowest for minimum ice extents on the satellite record.

This is a quote from the director of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, with whom WMO works very closely.

His name is Doctor Mark Sarazi and he said it's been a crazy year up north with sea ice at near record low 100°F, heat waves in Siberia and massive forest fires.

The year 2020 will stand as an exclamation point on the downward trend in Arctic sea ice extent.

We are headed towards a seasonally ice free Arctic Ocean and this year is another nail in the coffin.

So that's a quote from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre.

Another quote from a veteran Arctic ice observer.

His name is Ted Scambos, and he's a senior research scientist at the Earth Science Observation Centre at the University of Colorado Boulder.

And it's just to give you a flavour of, you know what, even veteran observers, you know a feeling about this, he said.

So this is Ted Scambos.

This threshold means the Arctic is more ocean than ice, a blue highway that's been open since mid-july and won't close until well into October.

So why is it so low this year?

As I said, it's part of a long term trend that there are a number of causes.

Primarily one of the main causes is what we saw in Siberia, the, you know, the very prolonged heat wave in Siberia, which had a big impact on what was already quite thin ice off the coast of the Russian Federation.

And also what we've seen this year is these according to the experts, is heat literally sort of attacked the ice from above.

So the air temperatures, but also we're seeing more warmer water, you know, eating away from from below these.

There's this trend was was observed at at very close hand by a German research icebreaker called Polo Stern.

This is the it's like a floating observatory for the most ambitious Arctic research expedition ever undertaken.

It involves scientists from 17 nations.

Polo Stern actually changed its route mid August to go up to the North Pole.

It crossed the geographical boundary of the North Pole because the expedition leader saw a window of opportunity to, to get to get there.

So they clocked like physically this, this big research vessel crossed into the into the North Pole through what would normally be in the past a, an area where there was very thick ice.

There'll be more details on the information on the information note that I'll send out to you.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

These figures only came in overnight.

So it was a little bit of a of a, of a scramble, but you know, it is one of the many, many indicators that, you know, underlining why we need climate action, underlining that, you know, the pace of climate change is, is accelerating.

It's not waiting for COVID.

It's, you know, we really do need do need to act now to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Secondly, and as I mentioned last week, the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is so active that we've run out of names on the regular list.

We still have Teddy, which is quite a big storm hurricane which has been whirling around in the Atlantic and hasn't made landfall, but it's causing very, very rough seas that.

But once Teddy dissipates, we will be on to the Greek alphabet, only the Greek alphabet.

This weekend we had the 1st letter in the Greek alphabet, alpha.

It was a subtropical storm, which the fact that we're using the Greek alphabet is in itself unusual.

The fact that we had this named subtropical storm forming and dissipating over Portugal where you don't normally see them was even was even more unusual.

But you know, it's 2020 is a very exceptional year.

We now have tropical storm beta, which is having an impact over the Texas coast.

It's in terms of wind speed, it's not particularly dramatic, but the the impacts of this particular storm beta is going to come from the rain.

It's very, very slow moving, almost stationary.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

And so obviously when you do have a slow moving storm like that, you do have the risk of of quite severe flooding.

So that's impacting Texas at the moment.

It's only the second time ever that we've had to use the Greek alphabet.

The first time was in 2005, which was a very active hurricane year.

Also in 2005, used 6 letters of the Greek alphabet.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So we'll see what happens this this year.

Thirdly and finally, just a very quick announcement later on today, we're issuing press release about a new record low temperature for the for the Northern Hemisphere.

I can't give any more details obviously because this is on web TV, but we will send you the press release shortly on that.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

And I might use this opportunity to recall that this this Thursday, the Secretary General will be holding a **** level roundtable on climate action as we head towards COP 26 and also the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

Of course, all of these events happening at the UN General Assembly in New York are viewable on webtv.un.org.

Are there any questions for Claire on the issues that she's just brought up?

I don't see any hands up in the room and I don't see any questions online either.

Thank you very much, Claire, for being with us this morning.

We'll move right along to Catherine Ruizu, the like you said.

Like you said, he said you develop more economic in Africa El Portora SE Tennessee illicit he says you do not do not do not complete the food, the capital commercial abusive activity criminal.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

We have then Roslyn Yard from the ILO who should be joining us online.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So tomorrow, 23rd of September, we'll be publishing the 6th edition of our report of COVID-19 in the World of Work.

And this is a series that tracks the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers and businesses worldwide.

The latest monitor looks at labour income losses and the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus packages that have been introduced to lessen the impact of the pandemic on labour markets.

The report also includes revised estimates on the extent of the disruption to labour markets in 2020 and the implications for policies in the remainder of the year.

So we'll be holding an embargoed virtual press briefing tomorrow at 11 O clock Geneva time.

You should have received already the notification and media advisory.

And the ILO DG, Guy Ryder will present the findings along with Sang On Li, Director of the Ilo's Employment Policy Department.

We'll be sending you the embargoed report and press release later today.

And the report and all associated materials will be under strict embargo until 1300 Geneva time tomorrow.

And please let me know if you if you want any separate interviews in advance or after the press briefing as well.

Thank you very much.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Are there any questions for ILO?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So thank you very much, Roslyn, and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to your press conference tomorrow at 11:00.

Let's continue now with Margaret Harris from the World Health Organisation.

Where it says good morning everybody.

So we just have a couple a few announcements for you later today.

We'll be putting out a press release ahead of World Heart Day, which is actually the 29th of September.

But we have a press release on tobacco being responsible for 20% of deaths from coronary heart disease.

Every year, 1.9 million people die from tobacco related heart disease.

Now this year particularly, this has got, it's always terrible obviously for people to die from something that's so preventable by preventing the use of by, by preventing the use of tobacco.

But this year we're finding that a recent survey found that among people dying of COVID-19 in Italy, 97% had **** blood pressure.

And in Spain, 43% of people who developed COVID-19 were living with heart disease.

So the links are very strong.

Cessation of tobacco is a very important part of the battle against COVID-19.

Second announcement, we've got an ongoing meeting of the influenza experts.

They're meeting all this week in Oh well, mostly virtually, but they're meeting all this week to look at what strain to put in the Southern hemisphere influenza vaccine.

As I'm sure you probably know that every year the experts look at what was been has been circulating and what will be the strains that that need to be protected against.

And they're reviewing all the information, all the all the evidence and at the moment and deciding what strains and we will let you know when they've come up with a conclusion.

Thirdly, we have an app.

We have a new app that is called, Pardon me, I have to look at my notes that gives you, it's called the COVID-19 Explorer app and it gives you a lot more information about COVID-19 cases and deaths, but also there's information on population mobility.

Also requested data visual A visualisations on things like testing and all kinds of other policies.

Now this has been something that we've been used internally.

There's been a lot of demand for it to be provided externally and I that this, it's available now at World Health org dot shiny apps dot IO slash COVID, but I'll send you the link in the notes and those are my 3 announcements.

Very good, thank you, Margaret.

I see we have a question from Peter.

This one.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I've just got a, first of all, a standard request.

Journalists would like to have open press conferences from WHO conducted in the same way that other UN organisations have, and they're always wondering why they don't occur.

The other thing I would like to ask is about the COVAX facility in terms of your WHO perceptions, you've spoken about anti vaxxers before.

Why do you think anti vaxxers are opposed to the COVAX facility and how are you countering their arguments?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

OK, I'll answer the first one.

The reason we're not having open press conferences is we are on a precautionary principle remaining.

The building is very much closed and very few people are using the building, including very few staff.

As you know, there is a rise in cases throughout Europe, so it's unlikely that that will change in the near future.

And yes, I know other organisations are opening up, but we as the health agency for the UN are taking the most cautious stance on this.

Secondly, on the anti vaxxers, I haven't seen specific attacks on the COVAX facility, but the concerns and anxieties about vaccination are wide have been widespread for some time.

And yes, indeed, there's been a rise in concern about vaccination throughout the world.

And what we say and we will continue to say is we will not endorse any vaccine.

We will not validate any vaccine until it's proven to be absolutely safe.

It's got to pass the highest level of safety standards as well as efficacious.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Do you have a follow up, Peter or yes, if you can't have open press conferences or hybrid press conferences, can you have press conferences that are not blind webinars?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

And I that has been raised before and I will certainly refer it to the decision makers on this.

This is Nina.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So I'll, I'll try to ask my question.

I just wanted to follow up on what you said about not opening to, to open press conferences at The Who.

If, if you think it, if The Who thinks it's better to remain closed, would you not suggest that their overall UN should do the same for the same precautionary reasons?

What, what, what reason would there be for the, the rest of the UN to open up and not The Who?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I have to refer that to the UN.

This, this is The Who position.

And then that's how it is.

But those decisions are taken, taken differently.

That's, that's something that I'd have to refer to my colleague on that.

I mean, what I can say is that we are referring ourselves on, you know, recommendations of the Swiss authorities and also a network of medical doctors that we have at our disposal for recommendations.

So we have decided at at the Palais to have people come back on the premises at least two days a week and up to 60% capacity in the building.

So as you can see, I mean, it is not business as usual.

We are trying to move into it slowly but surely while taking every precaution because as Margaret has just said, there is an increase of cases in Europe and we all have to be extremely vigilant and respect the most stringent recommendations for for hygiene.

So that's what I can tell you on that.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Let's see if we can hear Lisa this time, Can you?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Try to muzzle me before, eh, Bad.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

We'd never tried to muzzle people.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Go ahead with your question.

Anyway, so happy to be able to talk and to see you.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I've, I've got a couple of things.

The first one is a very simple thing and that is, I think I missed when are you going to be sending us the tobacco hard press release?

And I don't know if you're planning to have any sort of a press conference on it or not, but I would like to have an interview.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

That's the first thing.

And then the second is a little weightier maybe.

What is your response to this sudden removal of the CDC of its guidance on on airborne coronavirus transmission?

Do you agree with that or let me move a little further on that.

What is The Who transmission on, I mean view on airborne coronavirus transmission?

The CDC seems to think that just covering your nose with the mask is enough and doesn't consider that tiny little particles might also be dangerous.

So I'd like to have you explore that.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

On the first one, yes, the plan is that the press release should come out shortly.

I was told 11 O clock, but these things can change.

But certainly we've got a couple of experts I'd love to link you with.

In fact, had we been a bit bit bit sort of quicker to organise, I would have brought somebody down.

But it's probably better to do an in depth interview.

So very happy to organise that on the CDC.

You'll have to ask the CDC about that.

That's an internal matter.

But our, our position hasn't changed on transmission that indeed the, the, the main form of transmission is via the droplets that fall close but to you.

But in situations where there's poor ventilation, there's a lot of shouting and talking when you're saying a room that's very noisy, it's possible you could get smaller particles.

So that's why we recommend the use of masks, enclosed spaces where you can't physically distance.

That's why we recommend good ventilation, opening a window, looking at your ventilatory systems to make sure you're not recirculating air and and use of masks in places where you're in crowded circumstances.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I see we have a question from Gabriella Sotomayor.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I think Lisa had a follow up and but yeah, OK.

No, Lisa has a follow up.

Please raise your hand again, Lisa, and we'll come back to you.

But I thought we had answered the questions you had.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Yesterday at the press conference with Doctor Tedros, we heard that USA, Russia and China are not part of the Kovacs facility.

So my question is if equal access to vaccine will be discussed at the General Assembly, if Security Council will address this issue?

I mean, it's a very important issue.

And I don't see the main actors in the world, you know, committed with this course.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I do not know whether or what what the agenda for the Security Council discussions are, but I think Rial is looking up right now.

So apologies for not having that information for you, Gabriela.

On the COVAX facility, it's very much an organic and ongoing situation.

The fact that we've got 2/3 of countries already signed up is brilliant.

And we've got more countries coming in.

Some of that's down to having to sort of go through their various paperwork and, and parliamentary situation in different countries.

But it's, it's what we've announced is the beginning.

It's going to continue.

And what it's all about is solidarity.

You're quite right to beat this, we all have to be together and we have to be able to vaccinate the appropriate people at the appropriate time all around the world.

Just on the initial question, I think I would encourage you, Gabriela, to listen very closely to the general debate today.

I, I can only expect that many, many references will be made to the pandemic that has overtaken the world over the last few months.

I expect, fully expect that our secretary general will, will be making some, some statements on that and then as well as other world leaders.

And I see from the agenda that during the General Assembly next Wednesday, the 30th of September, there is going to be a **** level event on vaccines and ACT accelerator, which is going to run from I think 8:30 to 9:50, so an hour and a half in New York, NY, time where the Secretary general is expected to attend.

So look very closely to the note to correspondence we sent just last week giving you highlights of the many events happening.

And I'm sure many references will be made on COVID-19 during this General Assembly.

Let's go to Christian Ulrich.

Thank you, Ria, nice to see you.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Question on the approval of vaccines.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Do I understand correctly that the emergency use listing is only relevant for those countries that don't have their own regulatory offices that approve vaccines?

And how long does it take for once a company has applied for a licence until The Who has finished the process, even under the accelerated procedures of emergency use listing?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I'll have to clarify both those points for you.

They're highly technical.

I do not think the emergency use listing but is only for countries without regulatory authorities, but we have to look at that properly.

We do have a lot of work going on to ensure that that access can be made as possible as quickly as possible once we have a vaccine that is proven to be safe and efficacious.

But to give you the detail on that timing, would you mind sending me some written questions so I can send it directly to the the people with the technical knowledge?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Let's go now to Thomas Mueller from Bloomberg.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Yes, taking my question.

I just have a question because a number of countries lately have been taking measures such as local lockdowns or kind of limited measures such as putting curfews on pubs and bars or advising people to work from home if they can, but not obligating them.

I was just wondering if, if, if you have the, if The Who has a position on such kind of limited measures or partial measures, are these things possible solutions, will they work or or or not?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Our position is that every country puts in measures, needs to put in measures that enable people to physically distance, enable people to avoid crowded circumstances, enable people not to be in close contact and enable people to keep their hands clean, to keep their hands away from their mouth, nose and eyes.

All the things that we know protect them.

But they need to do it in partnership with their community.

They need to understand what is doable and what will work in their particular communities.

So I'm talking about being very targeted, very much listening to the perceptions in the community and tailoring what they do to make it possible for people to take the precautions they need to take for those people to be safe and also to be able to for society to function effectively.

It's a difficult road to walk, but it's one we've all got to learn to walk.

And let's try to just to unmute Lisa Shrine again.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

OK, Please go ahead there.

There is a a sorcerer at work here.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

We have a a little devil this morning.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Margaret, I have a quick follow up on the question that I asked you earlier.

Would you say that it is dangerous to ignore the possibility of getting infected with coronavirus from the smaller particles that well that we discussed that may be circulating in the air and to keep a greater distance than the current recommendation?

Or what has been the recommendation of keeping a distance of some 2 metres away?

I mean, I think that I had read or heard that one should maintain a greater distance, is that correct?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Distance is 1 important thing.

The other important thing is duration of contact.

What we're seeing with a lot of the work into transmission is if you were physically in contact with somebody with, with coronavirus or in the vicinity of for quite some time, length of time more than 15 minutes, then you increase your risk.

So it's two things.

It's it's not spending a lot of time in a place where there's a lot of crowding and but also, as you quite rightly say, keeping your distance.

Now we have said more than one metre in for practicality, but the greater the distance you can maintain, the greater the safety.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Emma Farge from Reuters has.

The following question, Margaret for you.

First, you would like to know if there are any updates on the discussions with China and Kovacs please?

And and then the second question is how lenient will you be with the undecided countries on timing?

As for ongoing discussions, there are ongoing discussions with all the countries involved.

This is as we said, a global movement and we expect that the joining will increase because it just makes sense.

We all need to be in this together in order to finish this this pandemic.

On the specifics, no, I don't have an update.

And on timelines, I don't have any specific on that either.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

We have Catherine Fianca also with us, if you want to go ahead.

Catherine.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

I have a specific question related to the time of infection and and the measures, because we've seen that in certain countries and certain regions of the world, it has been decided not to confine anymore the people that are around the infected cases.

For instance, in France, they have decided that they won't confine anymore the classroom when one student is infected.

Before they were confining the classroom and the teacher.

Now they've decided that they need to have three infected children in the classroom before to decide to confine the rest of the class.

So do you think that this is very wise, like the fact that also in certain countries, they decide that when one case is positive, the rest of the family is not automatically asked to stay home?

You have all kind of ranges of confinement that goes also from 15 days to three days.

So what are you as medical experts telling the word to do?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So on the specifics, the different countries do adapt our recommendations according to what they see as their particular situation.

But our recommendation stays the same when quarantine and that is isolation of somebody who's been in contact with somebody known to have COVID-19.

And we still say 14 days.

And the reason we say 14 days is the mean period of incubation is five to six days, but it can be as long as 12 days.

So we have, we are continually looking at all the evidence and continuing, continuing updating.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

OK, I see Catherine still has your hand.

Maybe it's a follow up if we could unmute Catherine again.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

My my follow up is related to the testing.

What about the frenetic testing?

You have companies or people asking to be asked to be asked, sorry, to be tested every day or every two days.

What, what, what do you think about that?

Again, the testing regimes are, they do vary tremendously from country to country and they are, again, those decisions are taken at local level according to their context.

We certainly want to see good testing so that you can understand where the virus is because this is the basis of your public health interventions.

You test, you identify the contacts, you isolate the contacts you track as well so that you can sure that you identify where the virus is and stop that transmission.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

We're going to take one last question for Margaret.

This is from John Zaracosta.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Following up, my colleagues question about the possibility that the virus could be a result, what is the position of WHO?

There was a paper by the National Academy of Sciences back in April that spoke about this, about the microparticles that could be infectious for up to three hours in the atmosphere.

Has The Who made an assessment, a desk study of all the research papers out there?

And they've been quite a few since February, March, April and onwards.

But yesterday I think you were saying that you're sticking to the guidelines, but are you possibly reviewing the guidelines in view of all these concerns, especially about indoor spaces?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

And we certainly do review everyday.

So I, I think you may have heard Doctor Sumiya Swaminathan say, we read up to A500 papers a day and we are looking at all the Science Daily.

And when it's clear that there's a change in direction, the science is evolving, we certainly do look at changing our recommendations.

And we're constantly looking at whether the recommendations need to be changed every week.

So many of the guidance groups meet twice a week virtually just to look at whether indeed there are changes in the science that that will alter the direction of our recommendations on aerosolization.

So the, the the last scientific brief on transmission was put out on 9th of July and I'll read out to our position from that, which is that airborne transmission of the virus can occur particularly in healthcare settings where specific medical procedures that generate aerosols can generate very small, these very small droplets called aerosols.

There have also been some reports indicating that in indoor very crowded spaces, there's there's been the suggestion of the possibility of aerosol transmission combined with droplet transmission, especially when people are singing or shouting or talking loudly, such as during choir practise.

Maybe they're shouting over each other in a crowded pub or in in in restaurants or in fitness classes.

So that's why indeed, one of our recommendations is that if you're in such an indoor setting, you can't physically distance, the ventilation is poor, you should be.

It's important to be wearing a mask.

OK, Margaret has kindly accepted to answer one very last question.

I see Antonio Brotto from FA has his hand up.

So please go ahead, Antonio, and then we'll close on this topic as we have other items on the agenda.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Well, so my question is about the app that was announced in in the beginning of Margaret's intervention.

Is this working like like Swiss COVID for example, here is a is an application that tracks positive cases nearby or or is just some information app?

And can you send us some press release or some written information about this app?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thanks, Antonio.

Quick question, no, it's not specifically for you, but to, to, to look at your own exposure, which is what many of the the tracing apps are.

It's to give information and it provides comprehensive, up to date to global and regional overviews of the pandemic, detailed breakdowns from reporting countries, areas, territories, to allow rapid identification of trends in cases, mortality and other statistics that can be useful for policy making, response work, research and data reporting.

So yeah, but it's, it's now again, it was internal.

Now it's publicly available because there's been so much demand.

And I'll send you my little blurb I've got here with the link as soon as we finish this.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thank you so much Margaret for being with us this morning and haven't taken so many questions.

Thank you also to everyone for your patience during the little technical difficulties.

Let's bring up our new colleague Thompson Ferry from the World Food Programme, who is going to give you a briefing on the Mozambique food security situation.

Nice to see you again.

Thompson just arrived in Geneva, already attending his second third briefing.

Great to have you.

Thank you so much for your help for having me here.

I was really hoping to bring some good news to the House, but it seems I might have to wait a bit longer.

Mozambique Now the country Mozambique is 3 years into into conflict, particularly in the northern part of the country in Kabul Delgado.

The World Food Programme is extremely concerned not only with the escalating conflict there, but also with the deteriorating food security situation in that region.

The ongoing insurgency that began in 2017 has displaced over 300,000 people, most of them into the southern and western districts of Cabo Delgado, whilst others have fled into neighbouring Nambula and Nyasa provinces.

Now, the humanitarian crisis has worsened due to growing insecurity in Cabo Delgado, and it is worsened as well because of poor infrastructure that is limiting our ability to access those in need.

And thousands of Mozambicans have also fled as refugees into neighbouring Tanzania in Towara district and others.

And this is deepening concerns among the international community about the regionalisation of this conflict.

Cabo Delgado as some of you may know, currently record is recording the second highest number of COVID cases in Mozambique and population displacements have the potential to accelerate the spread of the virus.

This crisis when compared to to the to the beginning of the year, the number of displaced people has tripled over the last few months amid growing insecurity.

Also many of those that we have been assisting either in Kabul Delgado, in Nambula, in Nyasa, they have nothing but WFP food assistance.

Fusenet, our partners are the ferment, are the Ferment early warning system.

Fusenet are warning that with the continued crisis, most of the people in Kabul Delgado will continue to be in crisis.

Food insecurity levels, which is IPC fares three well into into 2021.

We've been down this road elsewhere.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

This is, this is a region that produces both crops for, for, for, for, for commercial as well As for the subsistence of the farmers there.

And we know that when there's violence and if a farmer is not guaranteed that he will be there to harvest, they, they, they, they hardly put any seed into the ground.

So you can already see that the, the 2020-2021 agricultural season is likely to be compromised.

Now the situation is even more concerning because Capo Delgado has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in in Mozambique, with more than half of the children under the age of five chronically malnourished.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Despite significant operational challenges, the World Food Programme is working to reach displaced people in Cabo Delgado, in Nampula and in Nyasa, including those that are stranded in some highly insecure areas who are facing crisis food insecurity levels.

We are providing food assistance in Cabo Delgado to just over 200,000 people at the moment and since July, Double FP has been providing assistance to 19,000 people who have been displaced.

We have fled the violence into Nampula as well as into NASA, and there are plans to scale up this assistance to reach 310,000 displaced people in the coming few months.

Now in August as well, to improve the assistance that we are providing to people who have been displaced, as well as to minimise the risk of the spread of COVID-19, WFP introduced cash transfers, particularly in the provincial capital of Pemba, so that people can can redeem their vouchers against food items as well as other essential items in local, in local, in local shops.

It costs WFP up just over 4.7 million per month to meet the needs of those we've been internally displayed in northern Mozambique, and without additional funding, WFP would be forced to reduce food rations as early as December.

Whilst donors have been supportive, they've provided invaluable support.

We continue to appeal to them to dig deeper so that those who are struggling in Mozambique are able to put food on their tables.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thank you very much.

Thompson.

I see we have a question from from Peter Kenny.

Yes, thank you for that information, Thompson.

I was just wondering, in the conflict in Cabo de Galleria, is it the conflict groups?

Is it ISIS related groups or Renamo?

You know, who is behind the security problem in that region at the moment?

Because I know that there's been quite a bit of to and froing with security fights.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

There is fighting and there these armed groups are linked definitely to some terrorist organisations.

I'm not too sure which ones exactly.

But what I can tell you right now is that it is indeed an insurgency in northern Kabul.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

We also have a question from Lisa Schlein, Voice of America Online.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thompson, hello.

Sorry not to make your acquaintance physically, but at least virtually.

It's nice to see you.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

The first, you say that you're concerned about the situation of COVID-19.

Do you have figures in terms of how many people are affected and your concerns regarding that?

What sort of measures are being taken to protect the people as well as the aid workers that are there?

Then I'm not sure whether I heard correctly.

Did you say that the area was prone to famine or to at least to food shortages?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Do you have a figure as to how many people might actually be going hungry or get affected by what will no doubt be food shortages?

And from what you have described, and you also say that you might have to reduce your aid in December if you don't get the money that you need, what will that do to the operation and to the the people, whether this whether they might indeed be on the verge of famine and become sick and so forth?

And did you mention how much money you actually need and what you've received?

Sorry to bombard you with so much.

Anyway, there you go.

Thank you so much, Lisa, for that and for the warm welcome.

And do not worry so much about the questions.

We are here to answer them.

So I'll, I'll, I'll address them.

I'll start with the famine question.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

The WFP qualifies a hunger crisis as a famine when a number of precise technical criteria are concurrently observed in one or more geographic areas.

These criterias are food deprivation that is affecting at least 20% of the population, acute malnutrition affecting at least 30% of children and a mortality rate of more than two per 10,000 per day.

At the moment, these three conditions are not jointly observed in any region of Mozambique, not in capital Delgado and not anywhere else.

Now in terms of the funding, yes, I say that it, it, it costs double FP 4.7 million per month to meet the needs of 310,000 people who are in need in Cabo Delgado.

Not only are they in Cabo Delgado as we speak, but some of them have fled violence into into ****** as well as into NASA.

Between now and February 2021, WFP estimates that it will need approximately 142 million in order to be able to mount an effective an effective response in terms of COVID.

You Lisa, you will know that when people move so does the virus and if people are are displaced, they move in any direction for safety.

Our priority at the World Food Programme is to make sure is the health and safety not only of the people that we serve, but also of our staff as well as our partners.

Cabo Delgado is is is one of is among the epicentres of COVID-19 in Mozambique.

I do not have exact figures in hand, but I'm happy to share those with you after the briefing.

I could just dig up and send them your way.

I'm not sure if if I might have missed one or two of of the questions that Lisa had shared, but if so, please shout.

I'm sure you we will hear from Lisa if she if you have missed anything and I see if she has her hand up again.

Yeah, I'm ready to shout.

Go for, go ahead with your follow up and then we'll go back to Peter in the room.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So you, you how you, you need, I missed the thing 123 million or whatever it is money that you need.

How much have you actually received and what will happen if if indeed you don't get the money, you you warn you may have to cut back, I mean significantly and what are the consequences of that?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Yes, we we, we, we, we need resources.

Yes, we have available resources.

Donors have been supportive, but it's, it's, it's, it's, it costs US 4.7 million a month to be able to adequately respond to the needs in Kabul, Delgado.

And in the next 6 months between September and, and, and and February of, of of 2021, we, we, we, we, we need about 142,000,000.

This, this takes into, into, into into account the anticipated growing needs in the region and, and, and as you approach the lean season in Southern Africa, more and more people will need food assistance.

And in terms of I think that was a follow up question, right?

It was in terms of money, in terms of what will actually happen, what we will see happening is that as early as December of, of, of of this year, we will, we will, we will start cutting back on rations.

Now we have seen this before.

When you cut rations, the adults, particularly the mothers in the families, they start skipping meals, they start, they start reducing the meal portions in order to stretch whatever resources are available to for the children to have something.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

And if the situation does not improve beyond December, WFP will be forced to even suspend assistance.

And, and, and that's a situation we do not want to, to, to go.

I mean, these are farm lands.

These are farmers and most of them are unable to farm now because of the violence.

That means they are going to approach the lean season with not without anything in hand of their own.

And that is of greatest content.

We are also concerned because Cabo Delgado is, is is is is has very **** malnutrition rates like I, like I alluded to with about 53% of, of children under the age of, of of five chronically malnourished.

Now the problem with missing males is that is that when you have malnourished children and you missed the window, it becomes increasingly difficult to treat it at some stage.

Yes, it seems like it's very dramatic situation.

Let's hope that you don't face those shortages much longer.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Yeah, just a very short point.

Thompson, you mentioned that you would share the data with Lisa.

Would you be able to share it with all of us?

I presume you will do, but if you can, that would be great.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thank you, Peter.

Yes, there has been a news release that has just been circulated at 10:30 Geneva time.

In addition to that, I will make sure that you receive any data that I might have at hand.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Yes, Andretta, please go ahead.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Maybe you could introduce you yourself as well.

So Thompson, who is new, so he knows you as well.

Oh, Shanti, I'm a Swiss journalist.

I'm working for Swiss newspaper.

It's condensed.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

So how much money of what you need in the next 6 months?

Did you already receive and how?

[Foreign Language Spoken]

And because you said that you have to cut food in December, but you didn't say how much you need or in need.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

OK, that's fine.

Yes, it cost us 4.7 million a month.

We need 142 million between now and February.

Those are our needs.

In terms of the actual, how much have we received from donors?

Can I get back to you after this?

After this briefing, I'll be happy to share the exact figure in terms of receipts for couple deal guard very good.

I don't see any other question.

Oh yes, well, Lisa has put up her hand one more time.

Let's take one final question Lisa on this topic as we not not not not a question or a request and it follows a request.

It follows Peter's request that is that Thompson, that information that Angrat asked you for about the shortfall.

I mean, I would, I, I need that too.

That's what I was trying to get at.

So, so whenever we ask questions could and you answer, could you send us all the answer that that would be something I would like to receive.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

She will be in your in your inbox shortly there.

You could do copy us as well at the UN Information Centre so we can update the summary of the briefing with that information.

[Foreign Language Spoken]

Thank you very much Thompson for for being with us this morning.

That is all we have on the agenda this morning.

I'll just close with a a few additional announcements.

As you know, the the Committee on Enforced Disappearances is currently in session until this Friday.

It's an online session and as we had announced, it had been decided upon request of the Iraqi delegation to postpone it's dialogue with Iraq on additional information on the implementation of the convention, which was initially scheduled last week because some members had tested positive for COVID.

According to the information that I now have, they seem to have set new dates of the dialogue with Iraq on additional information.

And according to the OHCHR website, this would be on the 5th of October from 12:30 to 2:30 and on the 7th of October from 4 to 6 Geneva time.

And this will be a public event that will be webcast on webtv.un.org.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child is also holding it's 85th session until the 1st of October.

And it will hold it's next public meeting for the closure of the session on the 1st of October at 5:00 PM.

And of course, the Human Rights Council is continuing it's 45th session.

As Ronaldo has briefed you at the very beginning, in terms of press conferences, I'll just recall the ILO press conference that Roslyn mentioned for next Wednesday, 23rd September at 11 AM.

This will be a virtual press conference on the launch of the 6th ILO Monitor on COVID-19 and the world of work.

And then next Thursday on the 24th of September at 10 AMA Hybrid press conference by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

They will be tell telling you more, giving you more information on the speech of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

That will be with His Excellency Mr Lapasov, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the UN in Geneva.

And that is all that I have for you today.

Again, 3:00 PM General debate at the UN General Assembly begins with the speech of the Secretary General.

I do hope that we will be able to send this you this speech under embargo very shortly, but I do urge you to follow it live on webtv.un.org if there are no other questions.

Let's end here and I wish you all a very good afternoon.

[Foreign Language Spoken]