Welcome to this press briefing from Geneva I We have a long list of speaker as usual today.
Just for your information, Cecilia has just sent again the preview as we had the last minute modification and a new briefing topic from HCR.
So I will try to follow the new schedule, but we start straight away with Jens Larke.
Jens, I think you are connected.
Would you mind to start with Libya, please?
And then we will go to Somalia with three speakers on this subject.
Jens, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Let me just check that the audio is fine.
You hear me loud and clear.
So a quick statement from the humanitarian coordinator in Libya, Jacob in Hilo.
I will send it to you in writing after this.
He says that I'm appalled to have learned that heavy shelling hit Tripoli's Alcatra General Hospital.
That was yesterday, injuring at least one health worker and damaging the fully functioning medical facility.
He says this is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
The repeated calls by the United Nations and the international community for a cessation of hostilities have only been met with complete disregard and intensified fighting.
This is unacceptable at a time when healthcare and health workers are vital in our fight against the globe pandemic.
The 400 bed Alhatra Hospital was one of the potential.
COVID-19 has signed health facilities.
As of March of this year, a total of 27 health facilities have been damaged to varying degrees due to proximity of clashes, including fourteen health facilities in Libya that have been closed.
Yagobahilu says that Libyan health authorities, together with the UN and our humanitarian partners, have been raging against time to contain the spread of the virus.
If Libya is to have any chance against COVID-19, the ongoing conflict must come to an immediate halt.
Thank you very much, Jens.
I have been requested by the journalist to try and get questions asked a little bit closer to the to the issue without waiting too many speakers to speak.
And I'm happy to try and do this if it doesn't make it too long for the briefing.
So I would like to start now just to give the floor to those journalists who would like to ask questions to Jens on Libya and then we will go to Somalia.
If I can see if there's any hands up, give one second to the journalist to get organised and see if there are questions on this.
So now I would like to invite Yens, Elizabeth and Babar, one after the other, to brief the journalist on the situation in Somalia, always related to COVID-19.
I'll start with you, Yens.
the United Nations and our humanitarian partners in Somalia are re prioritising and reprogramming activities to help prepare for and respond to COVID-19.
Somalia has so far recorded 7 confirmed cases, according to WHO, and no deaths, and has closed schools, banned large gatherings and suspended international and domestic passenger flights.
The humanitarian response focuses on limiting the spread of the virus and preventing any new infections.
Efforts are underway to enhance surveillance, rapid response and testing in order to enable the identification, diagnosis and tracing of all suspected cases.
Agencies are working with the government to train health workers, establish isolation centres, deploy health personnel at key entry points and ramp up hygiene responses.
Health workers have been deployed to all 23 officially designated points of entry into Somalia, including the four international airports at Mogadishu, Garawe, Posasso and Hargeisa.
The land borders with neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya have been closed, halting cross-border movements of people.
The risk of COVID-19 spreading in communities in Somalia remains **** because of crowded living conditions in urban centres combined with inadequate hygiene practises.
Of concern is the fact that the number of health workers in parts of the country is 2 per 100,000 people, compared to a global standard of 25 per 100,000 people.
Less than 20% of health facilities have the required equipment and supplies.
To manage epidemics while responding to COVID-19, it's also necessary to maintain critical humanitarian programmes already ongoing and mitigate the possible impact of the virus on the livelihoods of vulnerable people.
There are 2.6 million internally displaced people in Somalia who have limited or no access to health services and 4.1 million food integral people and also people living in locust infested or flat from areas.
Thank you very much, Yens.
So I would like to give the floor now to Elizabeth, also in Somalia.
Elizabeth, you have a yes, good morning.
To follow up with what Yens say, WFP has put in place operational plans that prioritise urgent needs among the most vulnerable groups in Somalia.
A COVID-19 outbreak in Somalia can easily exacerbate the fragile food security situation in the country and it could also rollback our efforts to build resilience of family.
Somalia is among the countries in the world with consistent indicator of poor nutrition and health, and a COVID-19 outbreak would devastate the already fragile healthcare system.
Just to give you an ID, we have 1.3 million people facing acute food security and the national global acute malnutrition rate is 13.1% which is quite a big rate.
WFP in April will provide two months ration or the equivalent of two months of cash based transfer to over 1,000,000 severely food insecure people across Somalia.
We will continue giving Nutrition Assistance to over 500,000 pregnant and nothing and young children to treat and prevent malnutrition.
WFP has adjust operation to reduce the risk of inspection of its personal cooperating partners and the people we serve.
In collaboration with WHOWFP has trained food monitors and 3rd party monitoring personnel on basic measures to protect themselves and other against COVID-19.
Finally, WFP will provide logistic services to the government and wider humanitarian community.
WFP manage on US, which is the UN Humanitarian Air Service as airlifted COVID-19 prevention supplies such as testing kits, masks and protective students to parts of Somalia donated by Jagma and Alibaba Foundation.
We also have noticed that the prices of key food commodities have begun to increase due to panic buying, hoarding and the lockdown of some key sources markets outside of Somalia.
Thank you very much, Elizabeth.
And last speaker on this subject, Babar for HCR.
The UN Refugee agency is ramping up efforts to increase capacity to prevent, treat and limit the potential spread of COVID-19 among refugee communities across the East Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa, including Somalia and all other countries in the region, which hosts some of the largest refugee populations in the world.
And when we say some of the largest refugee population, we are talking about 4.6 million refugees and asylum seekers, and the region has some 8.1 million internally displaced people as well.
These are living in crowded conditions, without adequate access to water and sanitation facilities and with the precarious livelihoods and food security.
Refugees in the region are particularly vulnerable to the virus, both in refugee camps and in urban settings.
Following confirmation of the first cases, as already mentioned, of COVID-19 in South Sudan, Eritrea last week, all countries in the region are now responding to the outbreak.
Unicial is actively engaged with the Ministries of health and other government authorities and WHO on the inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers and ID PS in national response plans.
A number of countries in the region already policies in place that allow refugees to access public health care.
However, many refugees live in remote areas many miles from the nearest government health facilities.
Others live in small, overcrowded dwellings in densely populated urban areas where they face significant challenges in adhering to guidelines around physical and social distance distancing.
Many of our operations in the region have provided refugees increased quantities of food and basic leaf items, including soap, to reduce the frequency of distribution and risk posed by queues and large crowds.
The outbreaks comes on the top of existing emergency conditions in the region, where 60% of refugees are experiencing food ration cuts due to underfunding.
This may be further worsened by breaks in the regular supply chain due to variety of COVID-19 measures including border restrictions and control.
The pandemic is also having a severe impact on refugees ability to work and generate income.
Many refugees have seen the business they run or work for, often as day workers forced to close.
Those who rely on cross-border trade have been particularly impacted across the region.
Unit CR is engaged in COVID-19 measure, prevention and treatment information campaigns, including through community groups and religious leaders.
We have also set up telephone hotliers, hotlines and other ways to get the message across to refugees and displaced population.
There's some examples in the notes that you may have already received.
You're talking about specific examples from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Thank you very much, Babar.
Thank you to the other speakers too.
And I've got a few questions here.
I will start with Katherine.
Katherine Hankong, good morning to all of you.
I have first a question for WFP and then a question for Babar.
So regarding WFP Somalia, I would have more details about the the logistics.
I know that usually a WFP is is helping out a lot UN missions with the logistics and I would like to know if because of the problem of planes in the world that you have less planes, less cargo planes.
Does WFP work more with United Nations and maybe with other entities like you just mentioned, Alibaba, Jackman Foundation?
Thank you very much, Elizabeth.
Following restriction on global movements and tighter border controls and commercial transport closure, it means that the usual routes for the humanitarian and health organisation are disrupted.
WFP needs to ensure its equipment and staff can rapidly reach the areas where they are most needed.
Using its proven expertise in this field, WFP is expanding its logistic and planning services to support the global humanitarian and health response.
WFP setting up international hubs in key location Shanghai, Liege in Belgium, Dubai and Atlanta, where supplies are being manufactured and then cargo is consolidated and prioritised on behalf of humanitarian and health partners as well as government.
But I think next week, next briefing, we with Yens intend to have a detailed briefing about logistic aspects of the UN response and we will come back, I suppose with more details on the operation.
And we provide, of course, our logistic expertise to those who want to deliver health equipments or any humanitarian equipment needed in the country where we have the humanitarian air service.
OK, this gives me just one second.
This gives me the opportunity to remind you that because of Easter, of the Easter weekend, next Friday, we will not have the briefing.
In case you need to send a briefing to the journalist, please do it in writing.
Or if it's something that you want to talk about on Tuesday, next Tuesday after Easter, we're of course have the briefing.
So now, Catherine, you wanted to add something before I listen to Baba.
And and regarding Elizabeth, the new hubs Shanghai, yes, Dubai and Atlanta, the, the new hubs, the new places, yes, Dubai, we already had have been Dubai, but Liege Atlanta and Shanghai are now been setting up because there are these are key location to transport pick up the cargo from those hubs.
Hi Babar, hope you're doing fine.
It's regarding the COVID-19 cases you, you mentioned about Eritrea and South Sudan.
As as far as I understood South Sudan, they only have one imported cases from the Netherlands.
That is a lady that came from the Netherlands and, and brought in the plane with her.
I, I, I don't know, is there a very large, could you please elaborate a little bit more about South Sudan and the population there, the refugees and regarding the, the refugee population in the region, most of them are in, in Kenya.
No, they, they both, they, most of them are in the northern part of Kenya.
Thank you very much, Catherine.
In, in terms of the numbers, I'll leave it to the updated numbers from our colleagues in WHO.
Our worry is as more cases are detected, the risk for this to affect people with the most vulnerabilities is there.
And that's why we have been asking to include refugees and displaced people in the national mechanisms and health systems.
So there is a response as quick as it is needed.
And in in terms of where most refugees are in the East and Horn and Great Lakes region in Africa, we're talking about 1.4 million refugees in Uganda.
Kenya has half a million refugees.
But overall the number of refugees and displaced population all together is more than 12 million in Eastern Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa.
So it's very important that we work hand in hand with all our UN and humanitarian agencies, but also with the authorities and the government trying to make sure that refugees and displaced have access when they need it.
And I can see that Christian is also on the line.
Christian, do you have anything to add on the situation other in Sudan in this part of the world?
I only have a few lines on Syria if interested maybe so not on the answer to Katrina.
OK, just just one second because I've got other questions for the three speakers on Somalia.
So stay connected, Christian, please, in case we have questions on that and I'll go to Lisa.
So ask your question altogether.
Yeah, I have few short questions.
I'd like to know how, how aware are people in the Horn of Africa and Somalia and elsewhere about the COVID-19 pandemic and the seriousness of this?
You Baba, I think, mentioned something about getting messages to the people, to the refugees.
I'm wondering how well the different agencies are getting the message across about this pandemic and the seriousness of this.
And then since apparently no social distancing or and and the other effects actions that are being taken are possible in crowded settlements like this, how are you actually operating there?
How are you able to overcome?
This situation in order to try to protect these people.
And then lastly, is fighting going on still by Al Shabaab at this moment?
And if so, I mean, I'm wondering if even the message of the pandemic has gotten across to them.
But if the fighting is going on, how is this impeding your operations?
Thank you very much, Lisa.
So I'll start with Babar, but the others will also have a chance to answer Babar as Andra as I was mentioning, I mean we have information campaigns going on in, in the region, including through community groups and religious leaders.
Telephone hotlines have been established.
Flyers, posters, bulk SMS and WhatsApp messaging are going out to the refugee and displaced population with radio announcements and also some focus group discussions keeping social distancing in mind.
Posters, leaflets, billboards and drawings as much as we can in terms of getting the message out there.
Indeed, where refugees and this place are located at, in densely populated locations, it becomes a challenge.
That's why it's very important to have access to adequate shelter.
They have water, they have access to soap for cleaning, but also, above all, access to food as well.
You want to say anything on the Shebaba on the fighting in in terms of specifically in Somalia?
I I don't have any information of recent attacks.
Yence Elizabeth or maybe even Christian, who would like to also complete the answer.
I just want to say that please, Catherine, come over to you.
Catherine, can you unmute?
WFP strictly enforce basic mitigation measures such as social distancing and washing at nutrition and maternal and child health centres where we provide assistance to those in need.
We also have adjust operation to reduce the risk of infection to the personnel, cooperating partner and the people we serve.
Of course, as I said we are we are trained, food monitored and monitoring personnel on basic measures to protect themselves and other.
And finally, we have designed culturally appropriate post with messaging and message on hand washing, social distancing and on avoiding large crowds at all gathering.
The posters are displayed in over 2000 registration and distribution sites where WAP assistance is delivered over.
Sorry, no, it was just a short comment that just to to remind people that the the activities that that we at the wider community are doing in tomorrow is very much in support of the government's own plan.
The government has a a national preparedness plan which was launched on the 26th of March.
It seeks almost $58,000,000 to scale up preparedness, readiness and response over the next nine months.
So just wanted to mention that thank you very much and I don't see Christian asking for yes, Christian, are you you want to add something nothing to add right now.
It's hard without the camera to to know what you if you want to speak.
OK, so my next request for the floor is Mosa Mosa Lizzie.
What about question Esco, Jean, Marc to put unmute Mossa sit the plan?
The actual MO le programmele montermodial rojuan avecun assistance of your own Samuel Leon de Samuel persons keta chef as important news about the plan that desistance or population of fragile de programme de resilience polyfami malosmo global the malnutrition nutrition egg programme programme specific nutrition listen to the maternal benefici programme million the person malnutrition the situation the security sushi in preoccupation programme continuing programme so reponde en corpus nuseo affair fast dramatic poorly population.
The condition The security Merci Elizabeth Asia pro location on C Purva play for a pleasure journalist K Marik, C Mercado ET al.
Linea I'm sorry, I speak switch to English.
We have Marik C Mercado on the line answering questions if needed, but we also have colleagues from the Human Rights Council, IOMOSE, Anktad, UNDP and WMO.
All these people are on the line in case you want to ask questions.
OK, so my next request for the floor is from Yan Eberman.
So probably you have said that already, but I have three questions.
And regarding testing, testing in East Africa and the camps you're referring to.
So which which are agencies are in charge of COVID testing?
Secondly, how far are they in terms of setting up testing capacity?
And thirdly, do you know how many refugees have been tested already?
In terms of testing, we rely on on the government mechanism.
That's where we have been saying that it's very important refugees have access to all facilities, including testing when it is needed.
And as we have been hearing, different governments are dealing with it differently, but where there's a gap in terms of health facilities and specifically in the camps, we are helping with, with the government's to to step forward and provide that.
So far in terms of how many have been testing, I don't have that detail with me in terms of where there has been a need and and if it has been done.
But just to give you an example how the work is continuing.
Personal protective equipment is being given to health workers and clinics while an assessment is underway to identify possible new locations for field clinics to provide health care in refugee camps and as I also mentioned this is complemented with distribution of food soap and other items that we have been trying to manage or or provide the refugee and displaced populations thank you Personal protective equipment is being given to health workers and clinics while an assessment is underway to identify possible new locations for field clinics to provide health care in refugee camps.
For UNHCR or for IOM, depending on who feels equipped to answer it.
So I was wondering about the situation in Greece.
Can you give us an update on how many refugee camps that aren't time?
How many cases are there?
Have the programmes for actually moving refugees out of Greece to other countries been completely frozen or some continuing?
And might you get to a point where you'll have no choice but to consider evacuation options for the camps?
In terms of getting a full update, we can look for that and and come back with all the details.
As you have been hearing our concerns for all refugees, asylum seekers and migrants being stuck on the Greek islands that that has been concerned and we have been in touch with authority in terms of trying to move forward.
My understanding is we still have thousands of people on the Greek islands.
But as I was mentioning, we we can try to get you an update and and see when we can come come back with it.
I see we have as I said before on the line, Paul, Paul, Dylan from IOMI, don't know Paul, if you want to add anything to, to answer.
Emma, Hi, good morning everybody.
Emma, thanks very much for your call for your question.
I'm actually looking, I've been looking this morning for updates on a number of those matters.
You'll be aware that last week we issued a release on the on the confirmation of the 1st 23 cases in one of the camps.
We understand of course, over the weekend that a second camp is now being quarantined as a result of this, but I don't have the updated figures for you.
But if you give me a bit of time, I can get back to you later on.
So next we have got, let me see two more if I'm right questions for the moment and it's Ahmad and Gabriella and then we will go to the next speaker.
Ahmad you have the floor.
My question is for Elizabeth.
As I understand, there are there are hundreds of millions of workers around the world that are working in the informal sectors.
And these people, most of them lost their work temporary now because of the cries of COVID.
Do you have any plan or a kind of coordination with the government to know how many or of these workers will need the sources to to have the necessary essential needs of food during this period of controlling the crisis?
We do not have information about the workers.
We work with support the government in each country and we try to provide assistance to the most vulnerable.
As I, someone from WFP said, you can have everything online, but you cannot eat online.
So we monitor the situation in each country.
We monitor the, the, the, the prices, the markets, if food is available on the markets.
But we do not have information about the workers and the workers who will lose their job, unfortunately.
We will do our best to provide assistance, food assistance or cash transfer assistance to those those in need.
But our role and is to support the government and maybe another organisation, another agency like ILO could give you information.
I was going to ask in fact Rosalind who is on the line, if by any chance she could say something about it.
But I think that's what probably you are going to discuss at the press conference today.
Rosalind, you have the floor.
And in fact, that's why I'm here, actually just to remind you.
And I think that we, if you take part, if you participate in the press briefing, you can put your question to our experts.
I don't know whether it's now the time to actually say a bit about the briefing, Alessandro, as you are online and the question has been asked, maybe you can just.
So the, I mean the briefing is analysing the sectors and workers most at risk of losing their jobs or having their hours severely curtailed.
And it does have a breakdown of the data by by region.
And it calls for a number of urgent policy responses to lessen the potentially catastrophic impact on the global labour market.
So the the virtual press briefing and you should have received the advisory on this.
It takes place this afternoon at 4:00 with sorry, at 1400 hours, sorry, 2:00 with the DG ILO, DG Guy Ryder and Sangan Lee, the director of the Ilo's employment policy department.
And he should be able to give you some updated figures on the areas that you're asking about.
We will be sending you the credentials very shortly for the for the press conference.
Also, I just want to mention that we are also reissuing the press release we sent you yesterday because it corrects an error in one of the regional figures.
So if you haven't received the press release and the report, please let me know and I will forward it to you.
And also experts will be available for interview throughout the day in English, French and and Spanish.
And just note that the embargo lifts at 1600 hours Geneva time today.
So just to just to be very clear, the press conference is at 2:00, fourteen hours and the embargo is lifted at 4:00.
I I asked the indulgence of the journalists and the other colleagues.
Since you have the floor, you want to just say the other little announcement you have?
Yeah, it's yeah, yes, that's right.
It's just to say that you we did send you this, that in case you haven't seen the the International Labour Conference which was due to take place between twenty 25th of May to 5th June has been deferred until next year until June 2021.
So this decision was taken by the governing body because of the severe travel restrictions, but also in you know, in view of trying to maintain the health of well-being of delegates and staff.
So as a consequence of this, normally there is a governing body meeting before and after the ILC.
So those two governing body meetings have also will also not take place.
Thank you very much, Rosalind, for this information.
And so if you want to stay connected, please stay.
Otherwise I will free you as these were the announcements you wanted to give.
And I invite everybody to connect to the press conference this afternoon.
Very nice to see you everyone.
I have questions but for Christian, I don't know if it's the right time right now Christian has a briefing on his own.
So if you can wait for that, it would be appreciated because I've got other people waiting if it's only for Christian, Christian have has a a serious things to say afterwards.
So I'll bear, I'll ask you to bear with us and and ask you a question later on please.
Katrina, I have explained it's very difficult to have follow-ups.
So if this is a question for somebody else or what would you like to ask Catherine if you can be unmuted, please?
Shamarc, I see there is a problem here.
No, there's a problem with Catherine.
So we'll try to get you a little bit later.
Catherine, let me now give the floor to our next speaker on the list, which is also on the COVID and it's Dennis McLean.
I have a statement from the Secretary General Special Representative on Disaster Risk Reduction.
Measures to combat domestic violence need to be given attention and addressed by national disaster management agencies, according to a statement issued today by the Secretary General Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mitsutori, who is also the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, He said.
Women and girls are more more affected by disasters generally because of the gender inequality evidence in society at large.
They die and are injured in greater numbers, particularly in extreme weather events.
This unfortunate reality has taken a new twist, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Women and girls trapped in abusive domestic situations are in jeopardy because of the lockdowns and restrictions on their movements imposed by governments to contain the spread of the pandemic.
I call on all national disaster management agencies to give attention to this urgent issue within their governments so that the port to victims of domestic ***** are included in their COVID-19 response plans.
This will save lives and prevent serious injury to many at this time.
This means the allocation of adequate funding and careful planning of shelters of women and girls escaping domestic *****.
It also means increasing the level of online support services, including helplines to police and social services.
Facilities such as supermarkets and pharmacies that remain open should be on alert to receive pleas for help and women seeking support without worry that their abusers will be alerted.
We need to find safe and creative ways for women to seek support in such circumstances.
It is clear that health workers and police services are working at full stretch dealing with the consequences of this pandemic, but it is crucially important that they liaise with national disaster management agencies and designated civil society organisations so that necessary support is provided to the increasing number of victims of domestic violence as a result of COVID-19.
Thank you, Thank you, Dennis.
And obviously, this statement echo what the Secretary General said yesterday in his own statement when he made an appeal for peace at home and in homes around the world, stating for that for many women and girls, the ****** looms largest where they should be the safest.
And he also, of course, urged all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19.
So that is in connection with that.
I'm sure you've seen the message of the SG.
Otherwise we can send it to you again.
So I'd like to see now if we have questions for Dennis specifically.
Lionel Fatton, if he can be unmuted.
Yes, you're online, Lionel.
I'm just wondering what is the mandate of your institution to address domestic violence?
I mean, I have the the impression that you're basically in charge of disaster management and I don't honestly see the link between your mandate and domestic violence.
Well, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction facilitates the the preparation of national strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction.
And clearly the risk of domestic violence has been a feature of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So it is the case, in fact, that a lot of national disaster management agencies are struggling to deal with this aspect of the pandemic.
And it needs to be factored in, I think, in national disaster response planning in general.
Because as I said and, and as Mammy Mitsutori said in her statement, it is in fact the case that women and girls are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events and other disaster events because of gender inequality.
And there's the same case with COVID-19.
So we're just alerting disaster management agencies, civil society organisations involved in the response to the pandemic.
This is an aspect of the of the pandemic that needs to be acted into response planning.
Thank you very much, Dennis.
OK, I don't see any other requests for the floor.
So let's go now to the next speaker.
We have we have got Catherine.
Catherine, can you yes, please go ahead.
Thank you for giving me the floor again.
My question was addressed to Rosaline regarding the cancellation of the General ILO assembly in June, but will there be a virtual meeting of Head of States with Mr Guy Ryder?
Is there anything forecast?
OK, Rosalind, are you still online?
Yes, Catherine at at the moment there there aren't any plans, but we will be able to update you I think in the in the coming weeks.
But at the moment we we don't have any plans.
Nothing to thank you Rosalind, if you can stay with us that would be appreciated.
As for the new humanitarian, just generally speaking, whether any of the organisations may have been impeded in carrying out their their work in any countries?
I mean, Barbara had mentioned that you are relying on the government mechanism for carrying out certain assistance with with regard to COVID-19.
But I'm just wondering whether any government measures that are perhaps not being imposed in certain countries may be impeding efforts to help help out in the fight against the coronavirus.
Thank you, Paula, who would like to take the floor on this?
Just just one more thing if if there, if you could speak potentially about the situation in Central America or South America as well.
But Central America in particular, there's in Nicaragua, for instance, the the government doesn't seem to be taking the, the pandemic very seriously.
So I would like to ask the humanitarian colleagues who have been specifically asked to, to answer on the question whether they can do their job in all countries if they are impeded to do their job.
So I'd like to give the floor now to Babar and then maybe Ian, say Elizabeth or other humanitarians if they want to also complete Babar.
Indeed, all the restrictions in place does make it really difficult for us as humanitarians in terms of being in the field and working.
The examples we have are of refugee returns that have been impacted.
I mean, if you're talking, I'll talk about Burkina Faso afterwards, but there were returns of alien refugees.
There was a programme in place in many other places like Afghanistan and other places.
We have to stop voluntary repatriation of those refugees who want to go back home had made-up their minds, but they cannot at this stage.
So we have to wait and see how things develop.
So for now, some of our at many locations, voluntary repatriation of refugees have stopped and we're waiting to see how things develop, but also refugees are waiting to see how things go forward.
Any other colleague who would like to complete this, Elizabeth Yanz, other colleagues that haven't speaking spoken yet?
Now, on the issue of Central America and Latin America, I don't know if Christian has any updates on Nicaragua or on other countries in Latin America, but if you don't mind, I'll give him the floor just a little bit later on because I still have one.
As I said to Catherine, to Gabriella, afterwards, it will be Christian's time, but I have a last speaker specifically on COVID, who's Jean Rodriguez for UNECE?
I'd like to give the floor to him and then Christian will have his briefing and then he will answer specific questions for him, please.
So Jean, now you are on, you have the floor.
Just one second, Jean Rodriguez, you have been a muted and re muted.
Hello, good morning everyone.
So we're here to talk about mobility in the post COVID environment.
It is clear that the recovery from COVID-19 pandemic cannot simply be a return to business as usual.
This is what the Secretary General wrote in his op-ed last week.
Recovery must lead to a better world, with the mobility of societies take for granted.
Severely limited in many countries due to emergency measures, 1 area that calls for a critical reassessment is how we can shift to more sustainable and efficient mobility.
Of course, our study was made before the pandemic and it therefore does not provide an assessment of teleworking on the massive scale introduced in many countries as a result of confinement.
There will definitely be a need to draw lessons from this when thinking about the future of work production and mobility.
In recent years, however, many cities have introduced policies to reduce the use of cars to tackle air pollution, lower carbon emissions and reduce congestions.
Evidence from these experiences shows that the shift can bring many challenges with no one-size-fits-all approach.
This is why UNEC is issuing this guidance on mobility management to help policy makers identify solutions in this field.
Mobility management is defined as the promotion of sustainable transport and the management of the demand for car use by influencing travellers attitudes and behaviours.
The guidance draws on concrete experiences from across our region and presents a total of 22 good practises from 17 countries.
It was developed under the Transport, Health and Environment Pan European programme, so-called the PEP, which UNEC managers in partnership with WHO Europe.
The guidance looks at various impacts of mobility management programmes, in particular home to work mobility.
Mobility management there should become standard practise for companies as well As for entire business and industrial parks, managing cooperation with local authorities.
A successful example is a Greenway project in Villa, Austria, where technology companies efforts to promote carpooling facilitate public transport use and courage cycling and electric vehicles use led to a 50% of its 3400 employees travelling to work more sustainably.
Home to school mobility School travel plans set up in the West Midlands in the UK for for instance, have more than half car use.
Major events Appropriate mobility management should become an integral part of the organisation of all major events.
Examples shows that the vast majority of fans can reach the venues with sustainable modes of transport when options and information are available.
Sustainable urban logistics Sustainable urban logistics solutions such as greener last mile deliveries can significantly can significantly reduce urban traffic, pollution and noise.
For example, the creation of a distribution service in Padua, Italy has led to the reduction of 1216 kilometres per day of inner delivery of of inner city deliveries.
Parking management The ability to effectively manage parking solutions has a direct impact on reducing congestions and pollution with appropriate alternative solutions in place.
Only 33% of trips to a new retail park in Zurich are made by car.
Sustainable urban mobility plans involving both national and local governments must be developed with the active participation of citizens and other stakeholders.
Successful examples of such plans outlined in the case studies include those of Krusevache in Serbia, Khasbu in France, and Seattle in the US.
Demand responsive transport.
This offers an alternative to conventional public transport for sparsely populated areas.
For instance, in in 100 people village of Coats Relay in Sweden, an on demand minibus and online journey booking service transported 4100 passengers in one year with a cost of 61 euro cents per kilometre, which is considerably cheaper than the €2 per kilometre which is the cost of regular bus lines in this area.
The guidance also looks at national efforts to coordinate mobility management initiatives, drawing on examples such as Austria's Clima Active Mobile, which was launched in 2004, or France's National Strategy for Sustainable Mobility Development, which now covers 55% of the population.
I'm looking if there is any hand up, but I can't see any.
So yeah, no, I can't see any issue now.
Thank you for your briefing.
I'll now go to Christian.
Christian has two items which are not COVID related, but I'm sure there will be question related to COVID afterwards.
And the first one is, if I understand well, the commemoration today of the World Health Day.
Christian Yes, and thank you.
I'm trying to make it fairly brief looking at the time.
So as you know, 7 April and 2020 is the day to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives and remind world leaders and everybody of the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy.
W Joe is paying tribute to all health workers, especially nurses and midwives who are the forefront of COVID-19 response and to remind the world leaders that without nurses there would be no response.
In this International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, we are highlighting the current status of nurses around the world.
We are calling for your support on the World Health Day to ensure that the nursing and midwifery workforces are strong enough to ensure that everyone, everywhere gets the health care they need.
The health the, the tag for World Health Day is support nurses and midwives.
You've of course seen the briefing yesterday.
The State of the World Nursing Report 2020 is out on the web and there are many activities around the world celebrating World Health Day.
Support nurses and midwives.
That's on World Health Day 2020.
And Christian, we will mean that I would like to add that on this important day, the Secretary General has also addressed a video message the whose link we have sent to you and also the text in this message.
The Secretary General says that as this day comes at a very difficult time for all of us, he expresses deep gratefulness to all of those healthcare workers that work around the clock, putting yours themselves at risk to fight the refverges of the pandemic.
He also recognised the specific expertise and commitment of the nursing midwife whose international year is 2020.
And he concludes by saying, in this traumatic times, I say to all healthcare workers, we stand with you and we count on you.
Thank you for the difference you're making every day and everywhere.
This is the message, the video message of the secretary general on World Health Day.
Christian, you also had a point on Ebola.
Just for notes, emergency committee committee will be scheduled next week to evaluate the the status of the public health emergency of international concern around Ebola.
The date will be confirmed shortly.
Now Gabriella has had the patient to wait for your intervention to ask her questions.
So Gabriella, you have the floor and then we will go back to Emma, who also had a question and then the others.
Gabriella, yes, thank you very much.
I kindly ask for your patience.
Congratulations to you all because it's WTO day and please tell everybody that I send a big hug for everybody and thank you very much.
Yeah, exactly, exactly that.
That doesn't make up any any contagious.
So one question, if you can send us some details about Lady Gaga's announcement yesterday of the concert, because there's a lot of curiosity in Mexico of who is going to be in the concert, how to donate and you know all that, all that details, if you can send us.
Christian, sorry, it is very difficult to ask one question at the time with the fact of going back and forth.
So Gabriella, please ask your questions and then Christian will answer to you.
Okay, so that that was the first question.
Then the second question is on the, the, the death, the deaths, the deaths that the countries are reporting.
And you know, I have this, it's, it's for example, in Syria, there are only two deaths, according to your report of yesterday.
Then in Russia there are 45 deaths, in Hungary 4 deaths, in Myanmar one death, in Venezuela 3 deaths, and for example in North Korea, 00 deaths and 00 cases.
So my question is, what are they doing to have this number of, of deaths in, in, in this context that we are having, I mean, in the, in the pandemia.
So are they having some treatment, some special treatment or do do you know something about that?
That is my, that is my question.
And then the third question is that in Mexico they are a lot, I mean 1000 cases or a little bit more, but there's a lot of a typical pneumonia right now that they are registering.
And it's strange because it's not flu.
I mean flu season is over in Mexico now it's it's, it's summer like it's summer.
What is happening if you if you know of these countries that they are not testing but.
I would like to ask everybody please to be a little bit brief compared to when we're looking at the time.
There is a long list of questions for Christian and we still have two speakers waiting.
So, Christian, now you have the floor for the three questions from Gabriella.
Then let me try to make a brief on the announcements yesterday also around Lady Gaga.
We sent after the briefing, the notes of the briefing.
There's the link to the to the efforts made there and the link to the to the documents with all the relevant information on it.
Otherwise, just look up what we sent last night after the briefing, 2nd on the country deaths.
Without being able now to go into the specifics of each individual country, there could be various issues to it.
I, I doubt actually that it's the the wonder drug that I think we can dismiss quite safely, but it could be a reason of, of underreporting.
It could be a reason of of not having enough capacity to do the reporting in a comprehensive and in the coherent way.
Some countries report in a bulk.
They for example don't report for a week or for weeks and then report all cases in a in a yeah in one bulk.
Or of course it could be a classification related issue, meaning if somebody dies, let's say of of them of pneumonia, lung infection, then death could be, I'm saying could, I'm not saying it has to be, but it could be recorded as pneumonia related death and maybe not immediately linked to the coding and the classification as a COVID-19 reported death.
So it or it could be a home death which then gets the classic classified differently.
So without knowing the specifications or the, the the individual reasons, there are a long list of reasons why or how misreporting or underreporting could happen on Mexico pneumonia.
I would have to refer to the colleagues and the kind of American health organisation, our regional office in the Americas.
Yes, thank you very much.
Gabriela, please, I can't go back and forth.
I'm sorry, but you know, everybody wants to ask.
Emma, you've been waiting also for your question, Christian.
I hope you're doing well.
I'm interested in researching non COVID debts that are also coinciding with the pandemic and I understand there's some figures that show excess mortality rates being higher.
I'm wondering does WHO have any data or any general comments on how many non COVID deaths there might be and whether they're increasing because of the the pandemic And and why are people afraid to go to the AR?
Is there just not enough personnel?
And secondly, how long do you expect this pandemic to go on for?
I I realise that will depend on many factors, but are we looking at a Spanish flu scenario where it will kind of keep coming around?
And when it does stop, what do you think will be the cause of the end?
Will it be the vaccine or, or, or just the right measures in place?
Thank you, Emma Christian on the non COVID deaths.
So this is something we have been warning against since the early days that because of the overstretching of the health system of the occupation of emergency wards, of ambulances, of medical staff of all capacity left and right, there is a **** risk of other diseases, any other disease having more increased risks associated.
Any dialysis, any cancer treatment, any, anything which needs capacity or free capacity in the in the medical service could be strained or could be having an increased risk now.
So you're right, but we do not have detailed figures in this because this is something you can imagine the very difficult to, to, to, to fix down.
It could be done in the modelling, but to report cases which would have happened if it's really, really tricky.
But yes, it's a ****, it's one of the the **** risk factors which we announced early and then keep warning against that.
This is why we need to to bring the curve down to have enough capacity in the health services for any response to to know how long this pandemic will last is a very much of A crystal ball discussion, of course, but important maybe to note that this will definitely be different in many in in different areas in different countries.
And this is maybe the most important part of it.
So it's not something we the world at one stage can switch and say now it's over.
It would be something which every region, every area, every country will have to make their own decision on which which areas to to, to pull out of lockdown.
For example, where to ease measures on social distancing and physical distancing.
And one of the most important parts maybe is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again.
It's similar like it was said, if if you're sick yourself and are bedridden, let's say if you get up too early and if you try to get running again too early, you risk very much to fall back and maybe even have complications.
So without having the 1 golden answer, every country help will have to look at their individual risk assessment, which areas to slowly release and where to come back to normal and what measures to keep or what precautions to keep for how long.
A vaccination will certainly help, definitely.
But while this is 12 or 18 months away, as we have been saying, we have to focus on the here and now.
Thank you very much, Mosa.
Contacted Rupert April briefing Mercy Catherine.
Hi, Christian, we're doing fine.
Listen, first of all, a request you, you kindly send us today an event that is organised by WHO Europe, A briefing.
And I would like to know if it would be possible to put the Geneva press score also on the list, mailing list of the briefings organised by The Who offices in other parts of the world.
That means WHO, Africa, WHO Asia.
Would it be possible to put us on the list in order to attend these briefings if we want?
What's my question, Catherine?
Yes, my other question is, I, I personally, I would like to have a little bit more information regarding the tests and and the vaccines and also what's going on with your virtual platform of more than 300 experts of the world that are collaborating in, in trying to find clues and share their findings.
What's happening with that, with that platform and that's it.
So let me start with the research and development.
So this is of course an ongoing effort that they meet multiple times throughout the week, either individually or in a in a, in a forum online.
So individual tests are, I think, advancing, even ready for emergency use.
Some of them the, the reports about vaccine development, you hear many, many, many basically every week, nearly every day.
But the, the, the most important part here is to have a safe either treatment or vaccine.
That's why testing and trials are important.
And before a drug or a vaccine is not licenced approved, we we have to be very careful to, to shout to hoorah too early on the Euro or other regions attendance.
That's, that's great to hear.
But as you know, our policies, we don't sign you up as a matter of policy, but you have to sign up even with our own list.
So we cannot simply send all the names to them and say please sign them up.
That's unfortunately not possible.
But of course, in the e-mail we sent you, there should be a contact and if you contact them, please, you will need to sign up individually.
I guess if you could one of Representative Wakanu could send them a list of names and saying please sign these people up, that would work, but it would have to come from you, not from us.
Thank you, Mr I'm sorry, I don't know if you wanted to say what something that she asked about the tests.
Yeah, I thought I said that in the first part with with with yeah, tests and drugs and everything is same thing all, all in one go.
Sorry, just a point of clarification on Ebola and the emergency committee.
Is it for them then definitely to declare the Ebola epidemic in the east of the Congo officially closed or over?
I, I understand that Sunday is the day when the 42 days will be over.
Mark, yes, you're, you're right with the count, but it's absolutely up to the, the DRC, the authorities to make the official declaration and to decide what day they will make the, the announcement.
Thank you very much Isabel Sacco yes hello good morning.
I would like to ask Christian about the you, you see for sure this story of bodies of coronavirus victims on the streets of Waiyakir.
And I would like to I, I don't remember to have heard something very clear that was a show experts saying how if corpses are able to transmit the virus and if yes, for how long?
Because this problem began because people had feared to touch the corpses that were lying on the streets.
And if you have some recommendations for governments how to manage this kind of situations that could happen somewhere in the future, in the near future as the pandemic is a continuous funding.
Christian Isabella, I'm not sure I'm I'm clear about your second part.
You mean how to prepare for another pandemic recommendations, clear recommendation or recommendations of all or about handling of corpses?
That's what referring back to the first one.
So there is and I think we said it also early, there is corpses manager body, body management guidelines.
They are not COVID-19 succumbed body is not that's not pose a **** risk like for example, Ebola body would if infected or affected body would would be.
So the the handling there is similar like you would have to do in a in a in a normal scenario with with other body handling.
So normal precautions of being affected in or infected with any other virus that person might have had, but no specific extra care.
This has been issued early.
There should even be amongst all the technical guidelines on the web, there should be a body management guidelines on there.
Thank you, very thank you very much, Christian.
One second, we have a question.
Yes, I had a question for Christian.
It is regarding the Wuhan city that is going to reopen to unbound outbound traffic tomorrow, April 8.
What are the guidelines and what is the If you have any comments from The Who regarding this.
All three train stations in Wuhan, Hubei, stand ready for operation on Wednesday, according to reports from People's Daily China in the mission of China in the EU.
Yeah, this, this follows the same we have been saying since a couple of days now about any loosening of measures about reopening.
It has to be the individual risk assessment of the country, the County Down to the city.
And in this case, one to see how to step by step reopen to make a proper risk assessment, to make proper alerts to people in order to still be having precautionary measures in one way or the other.
What are the recommendations to follow?
So if the risk assessment of a of a country, region, area is it has been made and then then that that's a that's a good move to do.
Everybody wants to come back to to whatever normal as soon as possible and that's why these risk assessments are so important and the blanket recommendation doesn't fit.
So it has to be very much specific to each part.
Gabriela, do you have another question?
Thank you very much, Christian.
Yesterday, Doctor Tedros said that Africa will not be testing ground for vaccines.
Can you, can you clarify why he said that?
I, I, I don't, I didn't understand why he said that.
This was more or less in response to to a headline which has had been going around the week before, not coming from WHO We're pretty, let's call it not wise statement was made about about using Africa as as testing grounds for treatments or for vaccines.
So what the DG yesterday did is he clarified that any testing or any testing of vaccines, any trials of, of treatments or vaccines has to follow proper protocol.
And that doesn't matter at all in which country or region of the world this is.
Any testing or or trials have to follow proper protocols.
And before we leave the issue of COVID, I just wanted to inform you, as we now will do every Tuesday, about the number of confirmed COVID cases among the UN Secretariat stuff.
As of yesterday, 6th of April, there had been no changes in the numbers confirmed so far, which was in fact 10.
Last Tuesday, we announced 9, but there were, there was a technical itch for which the case at unit year had not been included.
But as of last week already, we had 10 cases, not 9.
And we confirmed that this number has not changed with 10 cases among the UN Secretariat staff of which two enacted 2IN UNAP Regional Office, 1 case at the Independent Investigate Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, 1 case, our iOS, one case at OHCH, R2 cases, a UNOG and one case, as I said in unit year.
And we will inform you, we will keep you updated on the number of cases with the UN Secretariat staff every Tuesday from now on.
So thank you very much for your patient, Dennis.
Dennis, you had another point and then I'll go to Fernando.
As as everyone knows, the Category 5 cyclone has hit Vanuatu and is now also threatening Fiji and the Tong and Tonga.
Last year, in fact, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency in Vanuatu was here in Geneva.
And he remarked that in Vanuatu, we have to build our community's resilience and our capability to recover very quickly, as we've learned from the past two years that we can be responding to more than one disaster at the same time.
But even he, Abraham Nasaq probably never envisaged a nightmare scenario of having to prepare for a Category 5 cyclone at the same time as trying to stop the arrival in his country of COVID-19.
Extreme weather events and other natural hazards don't stop happening because of COVID-19 Category 5 Cyclone Harold hitting Vanuatu and threatening other islands in the South Pacific is the first major instance of this happening and the repercussions will be considerable from several aspects.
First though, it is important to say that Vanuatu and other Pacific islands which will face the wrath of Cyclone Harold have very well developed disaster management systems which will keep mortality from such events quite low.
Unfortunately, the economic losses and damage to critical infrastructure are likely to be considerable, with knock on effects for their overall ability to fight the COVID-19 pandemic including damage to health facilities, loss of housing, damage to water and sanitation and other important infrastructure, the scale of which has not yet been determined.
No cases have been reported so far of COVID-19 of Vanuatu, but the but the rules on social distancing have had to be suspended as thousands of people move to safe shelters and evacuation centres to escape the storm.
Reports coming in from various sources speak of significant damage in multiple small community communities throughout several islands, for example, in one village in Pentecost Island.
231 people living in 55 homes which were damaged or destroyed, but thankfully no casualties reported as yet.
Panuatu ranks as one of the most disaster affected countries in the world.
This is the second time in five years that it has been hit by a Category 5 cyclone.
In March 2015, Cyclone Palm struck the island, causing 14 deaths and damage and losses estimated at $450 million, approximately 64% of the country's GDP.
That storm also pushed back Vanuatu's expected graduation from East Developed Country status by three years.
In December 2017, the UN Committee on Development Policy recommended that Vanuatu's transition process could seek to reduce the country's vulnerability to disasters ahead of Vanuatu's planned graduation from LDC status in December this year, and that it must now be in jeopardy as a result of this latest disaster event.
So thank you very much Dennis.
I don't see any hand up for questions to you.
I'm just waiting one moment to see if anybody shows up.
So we'll go to our last speaker.
Thank you very much for your patience Fernando.
He you want to brief us on WTO?
I'll be brief as most of you are already aware of this, but the the World Trade Organisation will release its 2020-2021 trade growth forecast and the 2019 trade statistics tomorrow at 3:00 PM Geneva time.
It will be a press conference via Zoom with Director General Roberto Acevedo.
The report will be available at the WTO Media newsroom one hour before, at 2:00 PM Geneva time under a strict embargo.
So please make sure that you are registered for access in our media newsroom.
The embargo will be lifted at 3:00 PM and the press release will be published on the WTO website at that time.
The journalists that wish to participate in the press conference should submit their requests to our dedicated e-mail account and that is Trade Outlook 2020 at wto.org.
We will then send a confirmation e-mail with information on how to participate.
The press conference will be in English only and we will take written questions from participants in the press conference via the Q&A option on Zoom and also through our dedicated e-mail account mentioned before.
Please be aware that numbers are limited for this media event and those who are not able to take part can still watch the press conference live via our YouTube your our YouTube channel and that is youtube.com/user/WTO.
I don't see any question for you, which means you've been very clear and people have received the information.
But I have to apologise to Babar because you had another point which was added at the end and it was about working at Faso.
And you have the floor now.
And no, no problems there.
We're once again talking about Burkina Faso, keeping the focus on Sahil UNICR.
The UN refugee agency is warning today that lives are at stake in Burkina Faso's Sant Nord and Sahel regions, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people, including small children, are being forced to sleep out in the open at the mercy of the elements.
An estimated 350,000 people now need urgent access to adequate shelter and water to help them cope with the desert like conditions in remote parts of Burkina Faso.
Fresh insecurities driving more people from their homes every day in Burkina Faso.
Unisia was already alarmed that a chronic lake of resources was threatening a major humanitarian disaster.
The COVID-19 pandemic is now further aggravating what is already a complex miss mix of crises.
We are in a race against time to prevent more human suffering.
People are in desperate need of shelter in remote locations and facing harsh weather conditions.
We are calling on all humanitarian actors to increase resources as well as to all our donors.
Burkina Faso is currently the world's fastest growing displacement crisis, with close to 840,000 people being displaced by conflict and drought in the last 16 months.
Nearly 60 thousand were forced out of their homes in the month of March alone.
Despite the increased deployment of security forces, armed groups continue to wreak havoc in the countries.
Two regions are taking police and military civilians, school, health centres, teachers, health workers alike.
Unicia staff are regularly hearing hurling accounts from survivors on the run.
People speak in horrifying details of attacks on their villages where men, boys are killed, women raped, homes pillaged and schools along with other infrastructures are destroyed.
We are working with local authorities and other humanitarian partners to rush additional shelter and relief supplies to the displaced.
But with increasing insecurity and limited resources, it is going to be hard to reach all of those in need.
There are some more details in the note as well.
Thank you very much for this briefing, Babar.
I don't see any requests for the floor, so I would just like to conclude the briefing by reminding everybody that today is the the day in which we recall the international community, recall the genocide of 1994 against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The Secretary General message that we have distributed to you reminds us of this anniversary.
And he says that on these days, we honour those who were killed, but we also gain inspiration from the capacity of those who survived for reconciliation and restoration.
It concludes by saying that since the genocide, Rwanda has demonstrated that it's possible to rise from the ashes, to heal and to rebuild a stronger, more sustainable society.
As we look ahead to accelerating efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, let us take inspiration from the ongoing lesson of Rwanda.
Thank you very much to everybody.
And I would like to remind you that we won't have a briefing on Friday.
We will have the briefing next briefing on Tuesday.
And I take the opportunity to wish you all a very good weekend, long weekend, and remind you that we are here if you need any further support.
Thank you very much and goodbye.
