Welcome to the press briefing of Tuesday 20th of October in Geneva.
I'm afraid we have a problem in the room.
So the people who are in the room cannot see those who are speaking on the line.
So I would like to ask those who are here and if they wish to have a look on their phone or on their computer, the image that people can see on the Zoom platform now, it's working great.
OK, so let's start straight away with Andrei Mahechich on on Zoom with a briefing item on Rohingya refugees.
This is going to be a very long briefing, so I would like to ask everybody for gravity if possible.
On the eve of this week's donor conference for Rohingya refugees, UNHCR is stressing today the need for stronger international support and a redoubling of efforts to find solutions for this stateless and displaced population.
Together with the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union, UNHCI is Co hosting a virtual donor conference this Thursday that is the 22nd of October to meet urgent humanitarian needs of forcibly displaced Rohingya both inside and outside Myanmar.
Support for critical services in host communities is also a priority.
The ongoing humanitarian response is facing a dramatic shortfall this year as less than half of the requested funds have been received so far in 2020.
the United Nations has appealed for more than 1 billion U.S.
dollars to meet the humanitarian needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has added layers of new challenges and needs to on to to an already complex and massive refugee emergency.
Currently, some 860,000 Rohingya refugees are living in settlements across Bangladesh Cox's Bazaar district.
Most of them, some 740,000, fled from Myanmar during the most recent displacement crisis in 2017.
Other countries in the region host another 150,000 Rohingya refugees and another estimated 600,000 live in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Across this entire region, most Rohingya live on the margins of society and they need to be assured access to basic healthcare, clean drinking water, a reliable food supply or meaningful work and educational opportunities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened their living conditions, made access to services even more challenging, increasing increased the risk of sexual and gender based violence, and exacerbated the impact of infectious diseases for this place, Rohingya living in the crowded camps, such as those in Cox's Bazar and in Rakhine State.
UNHCR stresses the international community and countries in the region must not only maintain support for refugees and their hosts, but also adapt to critical new needs and expand search for solutions.
The focus of the search for solutions to this crisis must be the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees and other displaced people to their homes or to place of their choosing in Myanmar.
The responsibility for creating conditions conducive for the safe and sustainable return of Rohingya rests with Myanmar authorities.
This process will need to engage the whole of society, open and enhance the dialogue between the Myanmar authorities and Rohingya refugees, and take measures that would help build confidence and trust.
These include lifting restrictions on freedom of movement, enabling this place for Rohingya to return to their own villages, and providing a clear pathway to citizenship.
This virtual donor conference, which will also feature the voices of Rohingya refugees themselves, is scheduled to run from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM Central European time.
And obviously for for people reporting from other regions, it would be good to check the the time zones against against this time.
The conference will be also live streamed.
There is a link in the briefing note and the funds will be dispersed also to the will go to the international organisations, non governmental organisations that are working to alleviate the crisis on the ground in Myanmar throughout the region and towards the UN LED joint response plan in Bangladesh.
Thank you very much Andre.
If there's any question online, I don't see any in the room, no.
So thank you very much, Andrei, for this briefing.
I'll go now to Rupert Colville for OHCHR in the briefing on India.
The you should have received a press release just a few minutes ago on this topic.
The UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, is today appealing to the Government of India to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs.
She's expressed regret of the tightening of space for NGOs, including by the application of vaguely worded laws that restrict foreign funding and are increasingly being used to stifle civil society voices.
She draws attention to three different laws that we perceive to be problematic.
The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act or FCRA, is vaguely worded and overbroad in its objective.
The ACT prohibits the receipt of foreign funds for a quote, any activities prejudicial to the public interest, unquote.
The Act, which was adopted in 2010 and was amended last month, has had a detrimental impact on the right to freedom of association and expression of human rights NGOs and as a result on their ability to serve as effective advocates to protect and promote human rights in India.
It is expected that the new amendments will create even more administrative and practical hurdles for such advocacy based NGOs.
Most recently, Amnesty International was compelled to close it's offices in India after it's bank accounts were frozen over alleged violation of the FCRA.
This Act has also been invoked over the years to justify an array of highly intrusive measures ranging from official raids on NGO offices and freezing of bank accounts to suspension or cancellation of registration, including a civil society organisations that have engaged with UN human rights bodies.
The **** Commissioner is concerned that such options, such actions based on the grounds of vaguely defined public interest, leave this law open to ***** and that it is indeed actually being used to deter or punish NGOs for human rights reporting and advocacy that the authorities perceive as critical in nature.
Constructive criticism is the lifeblood of democracy.
Even if the authorities find it uncomfortable, it should never be criminalised or I applaud in this way.
The UN Human Rights Committee has found that when a state invokes national security and protection of public order as a reason to restrict the right to freedom of association, the state party must show the specific nature of the ****** or the risks the IT poses.
It's responses must be limited to ones that are necessary and proportionate.
Activists and human rights defenders have also come under mounting pressure in recent months, particularly because of their engagement in mass protests against the Citizen Citizenship Amendment Act that took place across the country earlier this year.
So this is the second problematic law referred to earlier.
More than 1500 people have reportedly been arrested in relation to the protests, with many charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
So that's the third law and this law has also been widely criticised for it's lack of conformity with international human rights standards.
Charges have also been filed under this law against the number of individuals in connection with demonstrations that date back to 2018.
Most recently, the 83 year old Catholic priest Stan Swami, who's a long standing activist engaged in defending the rights of marginalised groups, was charged and reportedly remains in detention despite his poor health and his age.
The **** Commissioner is urging the Government of India to ensure that no one else is detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
She also calls on the authorities to carefully review the FCRA for its compliance with international human rights standards and to release people charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for simply exercising basic human rights that India is obliged to protect.
The **** Commissioner does, however, note that earlier this year, India's Supreme Court significantly narrowed the definition of what constitutes a political activity under the FCRA, which is a welcome development.
Thank you very much, Rupert.
Is there any question in the room, Peter?
Rupert, could you explain a little bit more about the Citizens Amendment Act?
What does it imply for the Indian population and why is it such a contentious issue?
Yes, the the Citizens Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in December 2019.
The ACT provides an expedited pathway to citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.
In other words, groups that are not Muslim, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
And it refers to people who arrived in India before the 31st of December 2014.
So at the time it was passed, we issued a statement calling it fundamentally discriminatory because of the way it differentiates differentiates between people of different religions.
The passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act has triggered strong reactions among Indian civil society and from people from many different religions, not not just Muslims.
So many perceive it as going against India's secular traditions.
On the 5th of March this March this year, the Office of the **** Commissioner **** Commissioner herself filed an amicus curiei brief in the Supreme Court of India.
And the opposition is that the Citizenship Amendment Act raises concerns with regard to its compatibility with international human rights standards, including equality before the law and non discrimination.
And the court has yet to hear that case.
I refer to another case they they did issue a judgement on, but not yet on this one.
You mentioned that a priest is in gaol on the what charges and how old is him?
He I'm not entirely sure what the charges are actually.
I'd have to check on that, that he was charged and detained and we understand he's still detained despite, despite being 83 years old, despite being a long standing and respected human rights activist working particularly on the rights of marginalised groups.
So in our view, this is an example of these laws being used to detain the wrong type of people for the wrong reasons.
But I'll have to look into specifically what the charges are.
Thank you very much, Rupert.
I don't see any other questions.
So thank you for this briefing.
I would like to ask our colleague of the World Food Programme to come to the podium while they are doing this and we make ballet the COVID social distancing.
I'd like to just inform you that as you know, the fourth round of the of the Libyan Joint Military Commission talks has begun yesterday morning at the Paladin Nacio in Geneva with the presence in participation of the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, Mrs Stephanie Williams.
This round of talks is marked by in person meetings between the delegations of the two parties to the conflict in Libya.
This deliberation will continue until the 24th of this month or they're expected to continue until the 24th of this month.
And Smear hopes that the two delegations will reach a solution to all outstanding issues in order to achieve a complete and permanent ceasefire across Libya.
As following the appeal of the Secretary General of the United Nations on 23rd of March, calling for a global ceasefire and for all warring parties to put aside feelings of mistrust and rapidate hostilities on this talks, we will have tomorrow morning a press conference, press conferences in hybrid one.
As usual, it will take place from this room and it will have as a speaker the ACT Special Representative, Mrs Stephanie Turko Williams and you I think have received the invitation for this press conference for the arrivals.
Unfortunately, because of the COVID measures, we have to limit the arrival coverage to media pool.
UNTV is organising this every day and those who are interested, please don't hesitate to contact Gill Seren.
I'd like now to give the floor to Tom Somfiri.
He has brought today a guest that I welcome here, Mr Amir Dowdy.
You have already met Mr Dowdy when he was speaking to us on the screen and I'm happy that he's now in room 14 with us.
Mr Dowdy, as you know is the World Food Programme Senior Director of Operations and Corporate Response director for WPS Global Level 3 search emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic.
I would like to start from sooner or I'll give the floor directly to Anna.
I will just document the questions and I'll not take the Thunder from underneath his feet.
Well, thank you very much.
Good to see all of you in person.
It's, it's unfortunately we are not again in good times.
COVID is continuous to raging, continuous to rage and is affecting operations as well as people that we serve across the globe.
We are seeing an increased level of food insecurity across the globe.
To to give you an example, the latest integrated phase classification has shown that there are 146 million people in IPC phase three or worse in 49 countries.
This also includes 29 million people in IPC phase four, which is the phase before famine and these are in 36 countries.
We are continuing to see increased needs.
WFP stands today with the projection of almost $5.1 billion in needs over the next six months.
This, this will hopefully enable us, if we receive this funding, we will be able to respond to the needs of almost 138 million people.
However, over the course of this year, WFB did scale up its operations.
We have managed to reach home in the first half of the year, 85 million people with our food assistance and all types of assistance.
We continue to to provide services, the common services as you all know it, whether it's passenger and cargo.
We are slowly, slowly starting to phase out in a, in a very gradual approach our services to the entire community.
And that's due mainly to the availability of transport, the reduction in the need of the usual health items that we were transporting at the beginning in the peak of July and August 4.
We're going to continue to provide services where there is no viable commercial option.
So we are scaling wherever there is a commercial option, we will stand down and we will continue to provide passenger services to ±10 or 15 countries over the last two months of the year, if you will.
And those will continue to be serviced until we have commercial options available.
Over the course of also this year, we have managed to tweak our operations in a way where we are able to procure and deliver assistance to, to to the population we serve.
We've managed to almost to procure locally 553,000 tonnes of cargo of food servicing most of the countries where we operate.
We, we continue to remain vigilant.
We continue to monitor the situation as COVID evolves.
As you are seeing in, in where we are in Europe and in the States, the numbers are again on the increase.
But we will continue to to stress the need that the repercussions of COVID are we are seeing it now as we as we speak, we are feeling the the effect of it on the populations that we serve.
As you are aware, there is an interministerial meeting on the Central Sahel, where currently 7.4 million people in the in the three countries don't even know where their next meal is going to come from.
With the social impact, socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, the number of food insecure people could go up to almost 13 million by the end of the year or early next year.
The number of internally displaced people has risen from 70,000 two years ago to almost 1.6 million.
The region is at a tipping point.
And WFP scaling up operations.
However, we continue to appeal to the donors for funding and our requirements are almost $136 million for that particular region.
I'll stop here if there's any questions.
And just before opening the floor to question, yes, as Amir is recalled today, I just wanted to remind you that today the Secretary General will address the Ministerial conference that Amir was referring to on the Central Sahel by video message.
The text of the message has been distributed to you under embargo.
The conference is organised by OSHA together with Enmark, Germany and the European Union.
And we would also have a press conference scheduled at sorry, at 4:00 PM Geneva time.
This will include Mark Lococ, the emergency Relief coordinator of the UN, as well as Denmark, Minister for Development Cooperation and the European Union's Commissioner for Crisis Management.
We have sent you an invitation to the press conference and I would like to ask everybody who is interested to attend to register with Vanessa Wuyne so that she can send you the Zoom link ahead of the press conference.
The press conference will also be live stream on UN Web TV.
The press will be briefing will be in English, but we will send you also the link to the interpretation, English, French.
So I'll open now the floor to question and all these subjects.
And I see already that Lisa is asking for the floor online.
Nice to see you and just one second, Lisa, sorry Lisa, go ahead please.
You're still virtual to me.
But anyway, besides the Sahel and of course, there is a big a pledging conference that's occurring today.
Could you elaborate upon the most urgent needs in other places in Africa and also elsewhere?
And in regard to COVID, it's it's serious everywhere in the world, but Africa seems to be handling it in some ways better than in other places globally, my own country, unfortunately.
And So what other reasons are there for the need for emergency food on the continent and elsewhere?
How, how do you you know why they explain the increased needs for it?
And if you have a total number of how many people you expect to be hungry this year and going into the coming year?
11 country that comes to mind is DRC Congo is seeing a quite a significant increase in needs up to almost 22 million people this year.
And I I discussed this with my friend and colleague Doctor Mike Ryan yesterday on the fact that probably early action by many countries on the continent, the young age in in the continent has led to a sort of a reduction on the impact of COVID or the number of cases of COVID.
We also have to understand that there is under reporting, however the economic and socio economic repercussions of COVID happened there.
We've seen many countries that for example tourism, it's a massive industries and many countries in Africa does not exist.
Trade barriers, a lot of unemployment.
To give you an example, outside of Africa in Central Latin America, they are experiencing A recession they have not seen for 100 years where 63% of the workforce is scheduled labour.
And we know that COVID is raging there.
But when you are a casual labour, if you end up not working, you're not going to have the income you need.
So we're, we're seeing the, the knock on effect of COVID, whether it is on trade, socio economic income and, and as well as inflation in Africa.
South Sudan comes to mind, Sudan, Southern Africa region is suffering should be going to Zimbabwe and Mozambique towards the end of the month.
So, so we are seeing that everywhere and that is not necessarily COVID direct related, but also the the the impact on the economy and employment and income generation.
I think that was the the thank you very much.
I wanted to know if among those countries in phase three and phase four that you mentioned there are countries in Latin America and how how is their their situation if you have countries there?
All right, Haiti comes to mind.
Haiti, the situation is not only COVID related and and economic but also political.
We're seeing a quite a significant deterioration there.
Venezuela comes to mind, Salvador, Honduras, many of these countries are we're seeing an increased needs there.
Are they part of the 46 countries that I mentioned?
I am not sure I have to get back to you which countries are in Central and Latin America.
I will get back to you with the with the less, but we definitely feel the impact of COVID in in central and as they alerted they are suffering from a recession they have not experienced for 100 years over.
Thank you, Amir, let me see in the room if there's any question for you.
Yes, I, I did ask you for a figure on a global number of hungry people and also your your special helicopter service, relief service.
I mean, in the past your spokespeople have been talking about the financial problems that it keeps running into and how very actually threats to stop it.
Is that still a major concern?
And sorry, but finally, what are you doing in order to protect your staff and protect people while delivering aid because of the pandemic?
Let me try and 1st the, the numbers that we, the immediate needs have gone up by 38% in terms of food populations in, in critical need of food assistance.
We, we last year we've reached almost 100 million.
This year the needs are as stands at 138 million people, so a 38 percent, 39% increase.
Overall we are talking about 260 million who are on the verge of critical food insecure insecurity.
So the global figure is the immediate needs 138 million.
But if the situation continues to deteriorate, we can end up being, we can end up with almost 260 million people in, in critical need.
On the, on the helicopters, I, I sincerely hope you are referring to our own house operations that is country specific.
We have our own, our UN humanitarian aid humanitarian air service that is in 20 different countries that's localised to, to all these countries.
However, we, we did stand up a, a common service that provided transport both passenger and and cargo globally as a response to COVID to support the entire humanitarian and health responders of those we we continue to move cargo.
We have put on notice all our partners that we will be seizing operations or phasing out in terms of cargo because the market conditions have improved and there is no need for our service.
On the passenger services, we've managed to reach 24,000 passengers and and transported 24,000 passengers thus far to almost 69 different countries.
These services, again, where there is a commercial viables alternative, we will stand down and we are phasing out as Commercial Services comes online.
On terms of funding, our services when we stood it up was based on the projection of almost 7 to 800,000 cubic metres of cargo or health supplies and humanitarian supplies that needed to be urgently transported.
And our appeal was based on these projections.
As the situation evolved, we continue to monitor market conditions and also the availability, not only the availability of supply, but access by Member States and and health agencies and and NGOs to these supplies.
As the market condition changed and the demand reduced, we've also reduced our our needs in terms of funding.
We stand today almost $250 million in in received funding.
We have a shortfall of fifty $53,000,000 and we will continue to provide the service as long as we have the funding and where there is a need.
But we still have a shortfall of almost $53 million over Sorry.
I don't see any other request for the floor.
Come back whenever you wish.
And we go to our next speaker.
Margaret, you're online from WHO you may have.
We can hear you and see you.
So while we've got this huge pandemic outbreak going on, it's it and much of our focus is on that.
It's really important to understand that there are many other threats, including infectious threats are managed by carried by vectors.
And what I'm going to talk about very, very quickly is a position statement we have on the use of genetically modified mosquitoes to advance the tools against vector borne diseases.
They cause more than 700,000 deaths annually and are responsible for 17% of the global burden of communicable diseases.
We made a lot of progress in the control of malaria until 2015, but that progress has stalled in recent years and we WHO recognises the urgent need for development and testing of new tools to combat vector borne diseases and supports the investigation of all new potential control technologies, including genetically modified mosquitoes.
However, new technologies can supplement alternatives to existing interventions, but however this must be managed by current mechanisms of governance and oversight globally and nationally, and also institutional levels.
And all those mechanisms must be adapted to the purpose of managing genetically modified mosquitoes rather than replacing.
So don't invent something new, but continue, but ensure that there is full governance.
Internationally recognised risk assessment tools and procedures should be used for evaluating safety.
And finally, but absolutely crucially, community engagement is essential in developing effective approaches to combating vector borne diseases and communities must be engaged when planning and conducting field trials before any new public intervention is introduced, including any use of of genetically modified mosquitoes.
This position statement is available in all UN languages and has been posted and we will provide the links to you in the notes today.
Secondly, I heard mention of why many countries in Africa have done well with Kovid, and I'd like to let you know that we've got a really good video on how well Rwanda's done and why they did so well.
And much of it was down to surveillance, but also use of new innovations.
They used drones and they used robots in order to robots when they were managing temperatures and physical contact with people who are infected to reduce the infection and the the risk of infection to their healthcare workers.
So I'll also send you the link to that video because it's a really interesting 1.
And I have already questions for you.
Yes, there is one some other subjects, Jamil.
Bianca and Jamie, do you have questions, Bianca, on the mosquito issue?
In fact, my question is about COVID cause concerning especially Brazil.
Yes, that's the same for me.
Anybody has questions on the matter of the genetically modified mosquitoes that Margaret has briefed us about?
So maybe I'll start with Jamil in the room.
Margaret, you have questions on other subjects.
Question on an e-mail that I have sent to your office a week ago, again during the executive Board, your internal audit mentioned publicly that there was a change in let's say behaviour or narrative by WHO regarding the issue of confinement.
And this was basically not taking initially, not taking into consideration social and economic realities.
This was said, there's a link from your own Web page, minute 37 by the way of the presentation where the audit or the person responsible for the audit mentions this and but it does also say that WHO has adjusted its position.
My question on the e-mail, and I repeated this again here, when was this change adopted?
When was it that the W2, The Who changed its narrative or its behaviour or its speech or whatever you want to call it regarding the confinement and the social economic conditions?
So we have not changed our narrative.
Uh, right from the start we have advised against umm, uh, extremes, uh, restrictions of movement, especially large lockdowns in EE, especially recognising the social and economic consequences, but also recognising the difficulty of getting out of them.
Now we understand ultimately that countries have got to a point where they've got widespread community transmission, they've not been able to track where the virus is, not been able to, to identify the chains of transmission, and they have needed to resort to these extremist measures.
So it's a matter of explaining that we as WHO do not wish to see this as an immediate response.
We do understand that ultimately countries may need to resort to this or they may need to quarantine some parts of communities, some areas, but we ask very much that everything else be done.
The tracking, the tracing, the advising the community to avoid the crowded spaces, the closed spaces with poor ventilation, the close contact, the advising, the wearing of masks, the advising, the the rigorous use of hand washing, rigorous use of environmental cleaning, genuine physical distancing.
We, we what what our focus is, is don't look for one magic answer, do it all.
Demure follow up Yes, because it does not answer my question.
The audit was done between it does answer your question that has been on our position and you go back if somebody has asked a question, but it does answer your question.
OK, so, so the audit, yeah, you're questioning the audit.
I'm not going to get into an argument with you right now.
That has been our position and that's it.
The I'd like to talk to you a little bit about this new challenge study that's being carried out in Britain particularly in which some volunteers, healthy volunteers, have agreed to be injected with the coronavirus as part of efforts to try to find a new vaccine.
What does WHO think about that?
Well, actually we've been thinking about that for quite a while.
These are called human challenge trials and there is a very long history of this for development of a number of vaccines that has been a part of what has gone on with, say, the development of the cholera vaccines and the typhoid vaccines.
But there are very important ethical considerations to take into in into consideration if you are planning to do such a trial.
And we've actually developed guidance.
Our Ethics Committee got together quite some time ago because these trials were mooted, oh, quite early on in the outbreak when people were looking at how you might test a vaccine.
So we have set down 8 principles in this guidance and I'll send you the link after this briefing.
I'll send it to all of you in my notes.
And we've identified 8 principles that need to be followed.
I won't go through each one of them, but what is critical is that if people are considering this, it must be overseen by an Ethics Committee.
It and the volunteers must have full consent and they must select the volunteers in order to minimise their risk because you will be challenging people with a virus that we do not have a treatment for.
And so generally with such trials in the past, they were done when you had a specific treatment.
So you would expose the person to the virus, test the test the vaccine in the person who is exposed, give them the vaccine, give them the vaccine first actually, then expose them to the virus, but you would have a treatment.
So you must ensure that everybody involves understands exactly what is at stake, must be selected to minimise the risk to the the volunteer and you must ensure that informed consent is rigorous, that they really do understand all the risks.
Yeah, can it's your turn.
Thanks, Alessandra, and good to see you, Margaret.
I have two questions about COVID concerning, as I told you, Brazil.
The Brazilian government announced yesterday positive results in a treatment against COVID with the antiparasitic Nita Zoksa Nita Zoksanid.
If I'm right, it would be in patients in the initial phase of the disease.
What is The Who position regarding this Med command?
Is it too early to recommend it?
This is the first question and the second one and extremely important.
The Brazilian President, Jaibo Senado repeated yesterday that the vaccine against COVID in Brazil will not be mandatory.
What is the WTO recommendation?
Of course, by the time we have a safe and effective vaccine, what is the WTO recommendation?
In a pandemic like that, how important is it to have a mass immunisation whenever possible?
Should the vaccine be compulsory or not?
Thanks Bianca for on your first question.
Unfortunately, I have not seen any information about that particular medication.
But as you know, we have a very large trial called Solidarity trial and of which in which all medications can be tested.
So we have a committee that looks at new possibilities and identifies which particular drugs will then go into the Solidarity trial.
As you know, we tested for particular medications recently found that they those particular medications did not show significant benefit in hospital, hospitalised patients.
But we're moving to test more medications.
So I can't specifically comment on the on on the drug you mentioned, but the work to continually evaluate all potential medications is ongoing and is is achieving results, even if it's negative results.
It's important that we all understand what works and what doesn't work.
On the second question, immunisation policies are decided within the national domain.
So WHO guidance aims to demonstrate the benefit and safety of vaccines for the greatest possible constant acceptance of vaccines, but we do not impose mandatory requirements.
I just wanted to follow up really quickly about one thought and a follow up question that the the question is that you mentioned the ethical concerns with regard to an informed consent.
Would that be, would that also apply in the case of countries like Russia and China that are testing their vaccines even though in people even though the third phase, the phase three trials have not been concluded yet?
And just as a point, I want to pick up on what Jameel had mentioned earlier that I like, I think other people in this press corps are concerned about the level of communication from WHO.
Generally, I don't have a dog in the fight that he has with on the confinement issue.
But but I do believe that we at Akanu and various other journalists have been trying to get clarity, particularly with regard to the use of the Zoom calls where people are not identified as participating and we don't know who is participating in the Zoom calls, which I think is very irregular for a press conference.
We had one press conference that had both journalists and the public that were involved.
I don't remember there being a response from WHO about that.
So I would just please express to you that we would appreciate greater transparency, greater communication from WHO on general on these issues of press access, which are very important.
We have not had a photographer, an independent photographer to be able to come to the briefings in months as far as I'm, I'm concerned.
And that's a problem for us.
So please address those issues of journalistic access, which WHO for months, if not years has professed to encourage.
On that point, I'm afraid we're going to have more limitations even as you know, we have a huge outbreak and we've got a lot of transmission in both in Switzerland currently.
So I'm afraid the reason why there has not been access is to protect yours and everybody else's health on the the Zoom call.
Yes, I will reflect those again.
And finally for Akanu for the the Pele briefing, we are trying to organise briefings with our experts.
I think the next one we're trying to get a date for is, is Doctor Soumya Swaminathan.
And that's very much in the works.
So we really do understand your needs and we recognise also the importance of the work you do and and the importance of your work getting out critical health information.
And that is really very much appreciated, especially in this difficult time.
OK, I see that Ginny has another follow up, but I'm sorry, I have four more speakers.
So I will go to Gabriella, who has not had a chance to ask questions to Margaret.
There's one question in the room and then I would like to ask the others to continue this conversation with Margaret either at the end of the briefing or after I have four more speakers.
If we have time back, we will go back to these follow-ups afterwards.
My question is in Mexico, as you may know Mexico is the is one of the countries that is not doing any PCR tests, OK.
So Pajo sent to Mexico 200,000 rapid tests, these antigen rapid tests to test people that in places that is impossible to do this PCR.
And then the government said that they are reviewing these tests to see if they are OK to use in Mexico.
I guess that if Pacho sent tests they are OK.
How can you understand this attitude in Mexico of not testing?
Come on, it's really incredible.
OK, Margaret, thank you, Gabriella, I can't really comment on the specifics because I don't know the detail there.
You'll have to refer to PAHO, but on the general principle of testing, yes, we say test, test, test.
It enables you to understand where your virus is.
It enables you to make decisions about who needs care, who needs to be isolated, and who is a potential contact who also needs to be quarantined.
So by doing those basic things, it helps you to break the chain of transmission.
Margaret, if you can stay with us, there will be some other questions for you afterwards from the same people.
So I would like now to go to our next speaker who is Claire newly online.
OK, can everybody hear me now?
Yes, just just briefly, a couple of announcements.
On Monday, the World Meteorological Organisation will be releasing a new report on the state of the climate in Africa.
It's similar to our traditional global state of the climate reports.
It's the first time we've done a regional focus and this this one obviously, as I said is on Africa.
I will send you the the material on it under embargo.
Basically it looks back at some extreme weather climate events in Africa last year, but also you know looks ahead to some climate change scenarios, economic impacts, etcetera on the continent.
It will be released at a **** level event, a virtual event with the African Union Commissioner, with the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa and with WMO Secretary General, Professor Telus, and that will be at 2:00 PM in the afternoon.
Now, if there is interest in the press corps here, I can try to organise a separate press briefing on the on on Monday morning.
So I'll be guided and that would be with the author of the report and possibly our African regional director.
So if you let me know if you are interested, we can certainly have a a press conference.
If not, we can obviously also do individual interviews upon request.
Secondly, we are also working on a new update on the La Nina climate event.
I don't have a release date and time for you on that.
But again, hopefully we'll have a press conference and everything will be sent out.
Claire, Any questions for Claire Nuris for WMOI?
Don't see any in the room.
I just to tell you that I would be interested in a press conference on Monday morning, early ish.
I mean, not too early ish, but you know, 930 something like that.
I don't see any other questions, so thank you very much, Claire.
Let me go to Sean, who's in the room.
Thank you for being with us.
Go ahead, John, I'm briefing for ECE.
UNEC is releasing today the third Environmental Performance Review of Uzbekistan and we call upon Uzbekistan to use these recommendations for designing its green recovery policies in the aftermaths of COVID-19.
Uzbekistan is a country rich in natural gas, gold, uranium and other mineral resources.
It attracts international investments and implements a large infrastructure projects.
It must therefore find a balance between long term growth and climate friendly technologies and the sustainable management of its natural resources.
Reducing its independence, its dependence sorry, on fossil fuels by tapping its immense potential for solar electricity, increasing efforts to reduce water losses in agriculture, which represents 32% of GDP in the country, and extending the protected area network are among the key recommendations of the report which we are releasing today.
The review includes an assessment of the country's progress in relation to 64 targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
It equips the country with 99 recommendations to improve the environmental situation and the well-being of that population.
We are while greening the economy, agriculture, transport, housing, industry and health sectors.
Commenting on the report, UNEC Executive Secretary Olga Algaeva State stated the COVID-19 pandemic has reconfirmed our dependence on nature.
It heightened the importance of finding sustainable solutions for environmental issues.
I invite Uzbekistan to use the EPR recommendations on clean energy transition, sustainable agriculture, sustainable management of natural resources and green economy for designing its green recovery policies.
I also urge international partners to support Uzbekistan in the implementation of the EPR recommendation.
Uzbekistan has made some significant progress in the past decade, including such as the electrification of railways, the ongoing reform, reform of municipal waste management, the introduction of enterprise specific targets to reduce energy consumption or investments to expand water supply and sanitation, and environmental education.
Uzbekistan has also adopted national goals, targets and indicators for the SD GS.
The PR underscores the government's large scale, a first to tackle the consequences of the RLC disaster, which has brought a large burden of disease and disability on the population.
The EPR commence Uzbekistan for the aforestation campaigns conducted in the dry bed of the Aral Sea and for the support the government provides to engineering works aimed at landscaping the Amudaria River delta for the restoration of aquatic and West and wetland ecosystems.
But many challenge remain in the country, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In it's 2017 nationally detriment contribution, Uzbekistan included a target to decrease emissions of GHS per unit of GDP by 10% by 2030 compared with the baseline in 2010.
The energy sector is responsible for 82% of GHS emissions in the country and must therefore be the main target of mitigation measures.
Losses in the energy in the industrial sector at large continue to be ****.
In 2019, there was no renewable energy generation other than hydropower in Uzbekistan, except for some off grid or small scale units, despite the country's immense potential for solar energy generation, estimated at 2,000,000 gigawatts per year.
Another sector which needs further attention is water.
Agriculture consumes around 90% of water in Uzbekistan and around 1/3 of that is lost due to inadequate irrigation techniques and obsolete infrastructure.
In 2019, only 10% of irrigated land used water saving irrigation techniques.
The key priority is therefore to increase efforts to reduce water losses in the agricultural sector.
Uzbekistan was also deal with past pollution.
Uzbekistan concluded a framework agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to enable the operation of the Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia.
This will allow the remediation of the Chakasar and Yangyabad uranium tailings, the most dangerous sites left by past uranium production in the country.
In 2019, Uzbekistan joined the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, known as Pups, to benefit from international expertise and assistance in the management of obsolete pesticides and other pups.
The EPR notes that the country's cooperation with donors on environmental and sustainable development issues as intensified in the past few years and calls upon Uzbekistan to join global and regional multilateral environmental agreements.
It is not yet a party to Uzbekistan must also increase biodiversity protection.
The populations of widespread wild animal species and other are either stable or growing in the country.
However, they are decreasing trends in population of several globally threatened or locally endemic fauna species such as the saiga antelope, marble polecats, saca Falcon, Egyptian vulture and many others.
The Strategy for the Conservation of Biological Diversity for the period 2019-2020 8 aims to expand protected areas to 12% of the national territory from the current 4.60.
This respects the EPR stresses the need to ensure that the protected area network encompasses all main ecosystem types and sufficiently covers habitats of rare and threatened species.
Lake Tuscan, part of the Idar Anasai lake system, which was declared A Ramsar site in 2008 under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.
Especially as word of full habitat should continue to be protected and finally, access to environmental information must be strengthened.
The review also calls the upon governmental authorities at all levels to make available online all information on environmental matters and develop detailed procedures for public participation in decision making on planned activities and projects, as well as to ensure meaningful organisation of public hearings.
It also points out the need to simplify the procedures for the operation of of environmental NGOs in line with international standards.
The report is published in English and Russian and we stay at your disposal for further clarification.
Thank you very much John.
Any question to ECE in the room or online?
Let's go to our next speaker, who's Rosalyn Cardiff.
This is a reminder that tomorrow we'll be publishing a report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the garment garment sector in Asia Pacific region.
As this is a regional report, the ILO office in Bangkok will be holding an embargoed virtual presser in English at at 1000 hours Geneva time tomorrow for journalists in the region over.
The press conference will also be open to interested Palais.
Journalists will be able to attend via Zoom and we'll send you the Zoom details ahead of the presser.
The report assesses the impact of the crisis on supply chains, factories and workers in 10 major garment producing countries of the region following the collapse in retail sales in countries where stringent lockdowns were imposed.
By way of background, the Asia Pacific region employs or employed an estimated 65,000,000 garment sector workers in 2019, accounting for 75% of all garment workers worldwide.
It accounts for 60% of the world's total apparel exports and large numbers of workers and manufacturers are are embedded in global supply chains that produce garments for international fashion brands based in Europe, Japan, North America and elsewhere.
The 10 garment producing countries covered in the report of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
You should have already received the embargoed report and and and accompany in press release.
But please let me know if you you didn't and the embargo will lift to 1100 Geneva time tomorrow.
Thank you very much, Rosalyn questions.
Not online, not in the room.
We come to our last speaker, Adrian Timosi for FAO.
We are connected to Adriano.
Alexander is actually me.
Oh, I'm sorry, I was given the wrong information.
So it's ITC who has the last briefing.
Yes, thank you very much, Alessandra.
Just a very, very short announcement.
This coming Thursday we are wait.
This coming Thursday we are releasing a policy brief on the role of women in business called Women Entrepreneurs, An Action plan to build back better.
The brief was prepared by us, the International Trade Centre in collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce, UPS and Women 20, the women's economic empowerment group connected to the G20.
The brief provides 9 urgent recommendations for action, 3 for businesses, 3 for governments and three for the international community.
The suggestions focus on corporate and public procurement, on financing, on government support packages, on digital literacy and training.
There are specifically targeted to women owned businesses.
The launch will be on Thursday at 3:15 Central European time and we will organise in the upcoming weeks specific media briefing to discuss the outcomes of these policy briefs.
Thank you very much, Victorian.
Sorry again for the mistake here.
Don't see any question for you.
So thank you very much and good luck for the launch.
So my last announcements and then I will go to if there is still any question for Margaret, let me take off my mask.
My last announcements concern the upcoming you and I that as you know, we will be celebrated by the international community on the 24th of October.
We will tell you more on the events on Friday and Saturday, but I would like already to invite you all to participate in the virtual events that we are organising on the occasion of this of the 75th anniversary of the UN and the celebration of 100 year multilateralism in Geneva.
This event is titled Multilateralism of the Future.
How will global cooperation evolve in the 21st century?
Will be broadcast live UNTV on 22nd of October at 3:30 PM, so you will be able to follow it on webtv.un.org.
It will feature briefing from by Fabrica Aukshil, the Special Advisor to the SG, on the commemoration of the UN 75th anniversary and it will also feature a focused discussion between Titanova, the Director General of the UN Office at Geneva, and Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders and former President of Ireland and also former UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights.
We will also have the possibility to have a question and answer session.
The audience will be invited to engage with the speaker via slide.
You have received a note correspondent on this event and we hope you will be participating in it.
As I said on Friday, we will give you more information about the other events.
But I can also say already that on 22nd of October we will inaugurate an art exhibition on the future we want in the mezzanine space in E Building.
The exhibition will run until the 12th of November.
We will give you more information about the inauguration soon and don't forget that on the evening of the 24th of October, Europe will turn UN blue.
Many monuments in Europe and landmarks will be colouring in blue, UN blue.
We will give you more information on this event on Friday, but let me tell you already that the Paladin Nation and the Shadow in Geneva will participate in this initiative.
And I think this is all I had for you.
Let me see if Margaret, I hope she's still connected.
So Bianca, please go ahead and ask your question to Margaret.
Thanks, Margaret for your answer and thank, thanks for taking the follow up.
Just to have it 100% clear, can I say that at the moment, WHO doesn't have any information or enough information regarding the antiparasitic Nita Zoxanadini, Nita Zoxanidin, Sorry.
So we look for information on all drugs.
So I do not have any information about that particular drug being used in these particular circumstances.
I'm not saying we don't have any information.
I would have to check the drug itself and please send it in writing.
But there are many, many drugs that people are looking at repurposing, trying to understand whether or not they offer a benefit.
The way to understand is to put it in a large trial like our Solidarity trial.
And as you know, we've just reported on the interim results of that.
But the great thing about the Solidarity trial, it's set up a machine for assessing all the different potential drugs to see whether or not they confer a benefit.
And John Cenacos, this is a question for you, Margaret.
Just to follow up on Jamie's question earlier concerning access, I would just like to get a clarification if it's accurate.
What I've heard from sources close to WHO that a journalist from a major publication has been working at WHO embedded in the building and asking questions from staff in WHO, if that is accurate or not and what is the context?
And secondly, with reference to the data, given that we're entering now a second wave in at least in the Northern Hemisphere, is there a possibility of returning to more regular updating of the infection rates?
You've gone to a weekly epidemiological update from the daily.
And the second one is with reference to perhaps having technical briefings other than the briefings by Doctor Ryan and Maria and Doctor Tedros, that and Doctor Sumiya.
So we can get technical questions like what my colleague asked a few moments ago, not necessarily breaking news, but stuff that would make it easy for journalists to get their queries answered because sometimes you're very busy and it's not always easy to get a an e-mail response.
Just a couple of suggestions.
So as we're looking and trying to do more kind of background briefings and technical briefings, because you're quite right having you there and you're all very knowledgeable, you've become experts yourselves during this time.
It's the best way for you to have the opportunity to really ask the detailed questions of the people who really have the detailed answers.
On your first question, I'll have to check.
I don't think we've got anybody from a major outlet, but I'll double check that one for you.
And I think your other question was about, yeah, but if you are going to do a more regular update on the figures, OK, I'll reflect that back to the epidemiological team.
Yeah, they did go to the the weekly epidemiological report in order to give and in depth to look at 1 issue and look at it in depth as well as giving the numbers.
Now the numbers are updated very, very regularly on the website.
So if you're simply about numbers go to our dashboard because they are updated more than once a day.
And then remember, our numbers may be different from other sites because it's what countries report to us and there's a certain cut off time, but they are updated regularly.
So if you really, you know, if you're wanting real time numbers that are as close as possible to current numbers, go to our dashboard on the website.
I'm sorry to hear, but I needed to ask you one last question that's popped up in my queue from my colleagues the needed to find out if you can, if you can tell us what WH OS position has been about China's use of its untested vaccines.
What has WHO actually said in terms of in China's emergency use of these vaccines?
Is it, is this, do you actually have you given sort of your explicit support for China's use of these vaccines with this way we look at, we have, Tammy, I really don't go specifically into what specific countries are doing.
We are looking over all at all the vaccines.
And our position is we are reviewing all the data.
We want to see all the vaccines go head to head.
There are 9 vaccines currently in phase three trials.
And our our ultimate position is when we see there's a vaccine candidate, when the data shows us there's a vaccine candidate that that's both safe and efficacious, that's when we will be saying these are the vaccines that should be rolled out through the COVAX facility.
DeMille, very quick just to know if you have a update on the mortality rates regarding COVID in the beginning was one, I understand that it has changed over time.
What is what is your current estimate?
Well, now remember that there are different ways of looking at mortality rates.
So this is where the confusion raises.
There's something called case fatality rate.
That's when you look at how many people died of those people who have tested positive for the for, for COVID.
And as you know, testing rates vary tremendously.
In the early days of the outbreak, there were not that many people tested.
Most of the people who were tested were people who had already arrived at hospitals, often very ill.
So the the case fatality rate is not necessarily a measure of the mortality rate.
The mortality rate is something you look at later when you've got a much better idea using serology that tells you whether people were infected but were never tested and were never seem to be necessarily positive during your outbreak.
You look at the, the, the, the, the, the antigen testing that indicates to you that somebody is actively infected.
You go through and you analyse a lot of sources to understand the overall mortality rate.
Now there's another issue that was raised recently called infection fatality rate.
And that gives you that is more a modelling assessment when you're again, looking at the serology that tells the antibodies testing, that tells you what percent of your of your population was likely to have been infected.
And then you look at those people who've died.
So all these are different measures that gives you a sense of what's going on, but none of them is necessarily the hard and fast number that you might be looking for.
Thank you very much, Margaret.
I would like to thank all the colleagues who have been briefed and the journalists who have participated.
