Transcripts For CSPAN World Health Organization Coronavirus News Conference 20240713

Unfiltered, at cspan. Org coronavirus. Earlier today, the World Health Organization held a News Conference in geneva on the coronavirus pandemic. The who director general stressed the need for countries to control the virus during the lockdown period, and also talked about president trumps Coronavirus Response efforts, saying the president showed political commitment and leadership. Shortly before the briefing, the United Nations announced the launch of a 200 million humanitarian Response Plan to combat coronavirus. Good morning, good evening, and good afternoon. Hello, and welcome, everybody, to the World Health Organization press briefing on covid19. We have with us as always the w. H. O. Director dr. Tedros, also dr. Ryan and dr. Maria van ker o hove. Dr. Tedros will begin with an update, and when dr. Tedros has finished opening remarks i will open the meeting to questions. If you have connected by zoom, use the raise your hand icon to o asknto the queue t questions. If you are connected by phone, indicate with hash nine. I apologize to all who miss out now. We have over 260 on the line already connecting and asking questions, so we have to briefing, so that those coordinating the response can get to the many other demand on their time. I will now hand over to dr. Tedros. Dr. Tedros thank you. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are. The pandemic continues to take a massive toll, not just on health, but on so many parts of life. Yesterday, the government of japan and the International Olympic committee took a difficult but wise decision to postpone this years olympic and paralympic games. I thank Prime Minister abe and the members of the ioc for making this sacrifice to protect the health of athletes, spectators and officials. We look forward to next years olympics and paralympics, which we hope will be an even bigger celebration of our shared humanity, and look forward to join. We have overcome many pandemics and crises before. We will overcome this one, too. The question is, how large a price will we pay . Already, we have lost more than 16,000 lives. We nkow we we know we will lose more. How many more will be determined by the decisions we make and the actions we take now. Slow the spread of covid19, many countries have contributed or introduced unprecedented measures, significant at a significant social and economic cost. Closing schools and businesses, canceling sporting events, and asking people to stay home and stay safe. We understand that these countries are now trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measure. Measures. Answer depends on what these countries do while these measures are in place. Asking people to stayathome and shutting down Population Movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on Health Systems, but on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics. Actions is tohese enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transition and save lives. We call on all countries who have introduced socalled lockdown measures to use this time to attack the virus. You have created a window of opportunity. The question is, how will you use it . That are six key actions we recommend. And deploynd, train publicalth care and health workforce. Econd, implement a system to find every suspected case at Community Level. Third, ramp up Production Capacity and availability of testing. Adapt, identify, Key Facilities you will use to and isolate patients. Fifth, develop a clear plan to identify and process contact quarantine contacts. Xsixth, focus government on controlling covid19. These measures are the best way to suppress and stop transmission, so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus doesnt resurge. The last thing any country needs is to open schools and businesses, only to be forced to close them again because of a resurgence. Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test, treat and trace are not only the best and fastest way out of extreme theyl and restrictions, are also the best way to prevent them. Countries and territories still have fewer than 100 cases. By taking the same aggressive actions now, these countries prevent chance to Community Transmission and avoid some of the more serious social and economic costs seen in other countries. For is especially relevant many Vulnerable Countries whose Health Systems may collapse under the weight of the numbers of patients we have seen in some countries with Community Transmission. Today, i join the United Nations secretarygeneral, the undersecretary general and uni cef executive director to launch humanitarian appeal to support the most fragile countries, who have already suffered acute humanitarian crisis. This is much more than a health crisis. We are committed to work as theu. N. To protect worlds most Vulnerable People from the virus and its consequences. We call for a global cease fire. We are facing a common threat, and the only way to defeat it is by coming together as one humanity, because we are one human race. We are grateful to the more than 200,000 individuals and organizations who have contributed to the covid19 response fund. It less thanched two weeks ago, the fund has r aised more than 95 million u. S. Dollars. I would like to offer my deep thanks to gsk for its generous contribution of 10 million u. S. Dollars today. Although were especially vulnerablebout countries, all countries have vulnerable populations, including older people. Older people carry the collective wisdom of our societies. They are valued and valuable members of our families and communities. But they are at higher risk of the more serious complications of covid19. Ople, listening to older pe and those who work with and for them, to try to find how to best support them. We need to Work Together to protect older people from the virus and make sure their needs are met for food, fuel, Prescription Medication and human interaction. Physical distance doesnt mean social distance. We all need to check in regularly on our parents, neighbors, friends or relatives waysive alone, in whatever possible, so they know how much theyre loved and valued. All these things are important at any time, but they are even more important during a crisis. Finally, the covid19 pandemic has highlighted the need for compelling and Creative Communications about Public Health. First announced our health festival. Volume, quality and diversity of entries far exceeded our citations. We received entries from 110 countries and today are announcing a short list of 45 excellent short films on health topics. Were also announcing a panel who will judge the shortlist with winners announced in may. We will be showing the films in the coming weeks on our website and social media channels. In these difficult times, film and other media are a way not only of communicating Important Health messages, but of administering one of the most powerful medicines, hope. I thank you. Thank you, dr. Tedros. We will now open the floor to questions. As i mentioned before, a little housekeeping. If youre connected by zoom, use the raise your hand icon to get in the queue. If you have connected by phone, please hit hashnine on your keypad. Please restrict questions to one question. Please try to keep them as short as possible, because there are so many people who need to ask a question. In fact, we had so many questions left over from monday, im now going to read a question from simon, who has been waiting i think three times to ask. I cannot see you in the queue, so i will read it out. I hope you can hear the question. This is from simon, from today n ews africa. Then asks dr. Tedros, coronavirus pandemic is fast spreading across africa and is threatening to overcome our weak health care systems. The center for Global Development in washington, d. C. s warning that if developed countries do not support africa today, this pandemic will not be defeated. What concrete assistance can w. H. O. Drive to assist africa now, before it is too late . Dr. Ryan i can begin and dr. Tedros can supplement. W. H. O. Has country officers in every country in africa, and those teams have been supporting those countries for many, many years. In addition to that, our regional director has surged many staff from Regional Offices to support teams. Weve supported National Action planning, sent ppe, sent and dispatched lab tests. We have worked to train Lab Technicians from all over africa, and we are currently working on increasing all of the capacities, in surveillance, in clinical management, and trying to work to provide more support in terms of supply chains. Situation forging all countries in africa, and the International Community i think, and all countries, lower and middle income countries, need support. The north must, while dealing with a massive crisis in its own regard, must move to protect the south, because no one is safe until we are all safe. Thank you so much. The number of cases in Subsaharan Africa is around 1,600 as we speak. Number of take the anes, this is actually opportunity for the six recommendations i just made. To be able to cut it, from the bud, they can test, isolate, quarantine, while still the number of cases is low. They shouldhing, believe that this is in their hands, that they can do something to stop it as well as possible. Have globalrse, we responsibility, as humanity, and especially those countries like the g20. We have the g20 summit tomorrow. Support countries all over the world, not only from Subsaharan Africa, but all over the world, low and middle income countries. Only through solidarity that we can support those countries. From the w. H. O. Side, we has started as early as possible to support countries, by providing test kits. We have provided already test kits to 120 countries, and a good number of them are from the african continent. And, ppe to 68 countries, most of these countries are from africa. We will continue to support countries who need our support, and we are negotiating with many stakeholders to build up our special logistics capacity to continue supporting the countries, as we have been doing. Thank you, dr. Tedros brazil, question, from from somebody else who has also been waiting to ask his question for about a week. Please go ahead. Thank you. Is on president bolsonaro, and i apologize for insisting on this. But his remarks last night and over the last days, are they actually putting the lives of brazilians at risk . What you ask him to change his position, and take responsibility . Thank you so much. Dr. Ryan i think we have spoken on this issue, and issues like this before. We trust that all governments will take the appropriate actions to, manage the Public Health risks which are are, but we also understand the terrible dilemmas countries face in protecting economies and social systems. But we must focus first on trying to stop this disease and saving lives. Justedros it may be our advice to all countries, and of course many countries are already taking communitywide actions, closing schools, restricting sking citizens to stay at home. Possibilities to have physical distancing. Atts very important, but the same time, we have proposed and that will also apply to any country. 150e are countries, countries with less than 100 be verynd they have to serious at this stage, when they have less number of cases. The first thing they should do, their, train and deploy Health Workers and Public Health workforce, and they should implement a systemwide approach to find suspected cases at Community Level. For all countries, even countries with no cases. We have some countries do have not who have not reported cases. We even suggested countries should ramp up production, capacity and availability to do more testing. The recommendation, identify, adapt and equip facilities. We have to prepare the facilities, for any eventuality. In some countries, the number of cases have really jumped and have overwhelmed the system, and they were not prepared. Getits very difficult to services to patients coming to the hospital to get service. So, preparing the system is very important for the country any country, including countries oro have reported cases, countries who have less than 100 cases, or 1000 cases. Cases should also be isolated, and this is the same recommendation for every country. A very important recommendation we have made, we need to have a whole of government approach. Because this pandemic cannot be sectord by just one alone. We need all the sectors working together to suppress and control this pandemic. Not only the whole of government approach. There also saying we need community, and communities should be mobilized to do their share, because this is everybodys business, and every citizen has the responsibility to take part. So these are our recommendations, which we believe apply to all countries. Is very dangerous, and we have already counted more than 16,000. If you remember, we have been saying for more than two months, this virus is public enemy number one. Its a dangerous virus, and we have been saying to the world that the window of opportunity is narrowing, and the time to act was actually more than a month ago, two months ago. Thats what we have been saying. But we still believe there is opportunity. Squandered the first window of opportunity, but we are saying today, my message, i made it clear this is a Second Opportunity which we should not squander. Everything to suppress and control this virus. And this is a responsibility for all of us, especially the Political Leadership is key. To it has to be able communities also to take ownership and do the right things to suppress and control this pandemic. Much, dr. Ou very tedros. Now we will move to italy. R. A. I. , italian public tv, are you there . You hear us . Please go ahead. There is feedback. And say your question again . If not, i will read it out, because i do have some text of your question. It sounds like we cannot hear. I will read your question. What w. H. O. Thinks about testing and active surveillance in italy at this stage. What should italy be doing, in terms of testing and active surveillance . Dr. Tedros i think dr. Ryan i think, we actually spoke with our italian colleagues today. We have a Senior Member of our staff embedded currently in ur regional director is in Constant Contact with the ministry of health. Italy has looked at each and every one of its provinces and in terms of where they are. Many speak about this in the u. S. We need to start looking at the data, need to start breaking the problem down, not look at a country as one entity. You break the problem down. You look at local geographies, and see what the situation is at each administrative level and decide what the tactics are. There are some parts of italy where transmission is very intense and its very difficult to get a handle on cases, Contact Tracing, and theres only attempt to save life at this point. The lockdown measures are there in order to try to suppress infection. But there are parts of italy where transmission is not that intense and theres real possibility of avoiding the worst happening in many of the parts of northern italy. So i believe out italian colleagues are trying to scale up, train the workforce, train Public Health workers, get out and do community detection, detect, isolate suspect cases entries and trace contacts. But we understand it right in the epicenters, it is difficult to deal with that when youre dealing with a heavy wave and a Health System under huge pressure. I really do admire them in i taly. They are heroes. They are putting up a courageous fight against this virus, on behalf of their people and on behalf of the world. We like and support the way they are breaking the problem down, working their way through the problem, and we will do everything in our power as the World Health Organization to support them in their efforts. Thanks. If i couldkhove supplement what mike said, dion italy there are many countries looking at the transmission situation they are in and the transmission seems completely overwhelming. Saying how important that is as part of this comprehensive package, it is a fundamental aspect that needs to be enhanced. And we hear you. We are on the phone with our colleagues every day, who say to us, this is not something we can do, what should we do . We have been very clear, it is critical that you test to find where this virus is so you know where you are fighting it. Cases, all your suspect test those suspect cases, find those contacts, test those contacts that develop symptoms. By doing that, you are able to break down chains of transmission. But when the situation is such that you have communitywide transmission and their areas with such outbreaks, you may need to prioritize actions to break down the problem, find the boundaries of where the big outbreak is, so you can bring it more under control. In making those tough decisions temporarily, it will help bring you back to being able to actually find all those suspect cases. As the director general has said, these are socalled lockdown measures many countries have implemented, and more and more we hear about countries implementing these socalled lockdown measures, this is buying you a little bit of time. And that time needs to be used appropriately. That time must be used to build up again your workforces to be able to find those cases, to be able to break down a much larger problem into something that becomes more manageable. We have guidance on our website which works through, with you, with all countries, which Transmission Center you are maybe in, outlines some of the considerations you may need to take, if you are in clustered large areas of cases or Community Transmission, with the overall aim of bringing you back from Community Level transmission to clusterings of cases down to individual chains of transmission so transmission can be suppressed and you can bring outbreaks under control. We hear you. We understand this is overwhelming, in many cases. But there are things you can do to suppress or slow transmission and save lives. Two lines. Ust you kno dr. Tedros just two lines. You know, the commitment of the Italian Government is really incredible. And not only that, the cooperation from the citizens of italy is also amazing. And i think this will bring reason. That is what w. H. O. Believes, as mike said, we will do everything to support. There are some good signals now. We had a discussion with some of the senior experts from italy today, and we hope this positive signal and process will continue. But i am really happy to see can. Is doing iall it thank you, dr. Tedros. The next question, from catherine, can you hear me . Can you hear me . Please, go ahead. Good afternoon, dr. Tedros , mike and maria. Testing. On, on seeingle are notentional equipment is available, does w. H. O. Advise as south korea is doing by using interactive websites, apps that track movements of infected persons . If its the case, could you elaborate on that . Thank you. Say, this isill ofbably the first pandemic the 21st century in which the full power of Information Technology, social media, Artificial Intelligence is being applied to almost every aspect of this response, both in terms of communication with communities and targeting information and avoiding misinformation and countering misinformation. Thats probably been one of the most powerful uses of Information Technology in this response, and we thank all those agencies public and private who have joined with us and with our partners to enhance the way in which we can communicate the best information to people. Huged that, there are a number of collaborations around surveillance applications, modeling, predictive modeling, analytics, support tools, and many of these other applications. China, and other countries developed apps that have supported them in case reporting, tracking, tracing and many other things. Have deployed our Data Platform for Contact Tracing to over 50 countries now. There are other i. T. Applications, like epidemic intelligence, which we use. We built that over the last five years with a consortium of international partners. It tracks information in multiple languages from all over the world using a. I. Engines and allows us to stay one step ahead in terms of information around the virus and other epidemics around the world. Chief working with our information officer, coordinating a huge project around the world with many institutions to develop the best possible solutions. There is a tremendous amount of innovation and a huge amount of enthusiasm, but we need to turn that innovation and enthusiasm in a real structured way into products that work for frontline workers and frontline systems, and thats what we are in the process of doing. We always have to have in the back of our minds, especially when it comes to collecting information on individuals or tracking their whereabouts or movements, there are very serious Data Protection and human rights and principles that are involved, and we are very cognizant of that. We want to ensure, all products developed are done in the most sensitive way possible, and that we never step beyond the principles of individual for individuals and societies. Yes, a tremendous amount of collaboration is ongoing. I could probably speak about this for a lot, lot longer. Maria might want to speak about the modeling work in particular, some other work we are doing. But i would just like to thank our partners from all over the world, and say the power of innovation, the power of ideas. We have had ideas for apps from people as young as 14 or 15, from individuals, small startup companies, from huge global companies. It has been the most outstanding, most amazing outpouring of support and collaboration i have seen in my career. Adding aerkhove just couple things from what we have seen, particularly in this pandemic. The use of telemedicine. Many people who need care who cannot go to hospitals right now, or cannot go to their regular routine appointments, are utilizing telemedicine and having interactive chats and conversations with their doctors so they continue to have care, from the comfort of their home, without having to go into a health care facility. And we are seeing the application of that among many types of medicine. We are seeing innovative ways in which children and University Students can continue their education, even though we have a large number of children and young adults who are out of school right now because of this pandemic. Theres interactive ways in which they are continuing their education and learning through this pandemic, even if they arent physically in school. We see interactive ways in which technology is helping us do training, where we cant do facetoface training because we are not able to move around the globe, we are finding ways in which we can provide these materials either online through our open w. H. O. Platform, we have more than half a million people, 600,000 people enrolled in our courses in more than two dozen languages. But we are also using technology to find more interactive ways to have oneonone conversations with frontline workers to answer and work through some of those very difficult questions they may be having as they treat patients or care for patients or set up treatment units, etc. We are also using technology in many different ways with Predictive Analytics that mike mentioned. We work with a large number of modelers, you heard me say this before, to work through scenarios, work through production. Of course, these predictions are not realities, so what is important is that we take all of these measures we have been outlining from the start to make sure that those predictions do not become reality. Lastly, technology and i. T. And apps have completely changed the the way we think of social distancing. We are seeing physical distancing, because we are actually talking about physically separating people, but keeping them socially connected. We have ways in which we can do this now like weve never had before. So we keep people connected, so they feel they are still part of this and we are all in the fight together, even while keeping them physically apart. Thank you very much, dr. Van kerkhove. The next question is from ankit today, butindia before i would like to remind everybody to use the raise your hand icon, and i apologize for saying hashnine, it is starnine for the telephone. Can you go ahead with your question . Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I represent india today. In india, there is a three week long lockdown, meaning 1. 3 billion people are quarantined inside their homes. Thewe keep hearing about possibility of more outbreaks in the future. A country like india cannot afford another lockdown after this ends. What is w. H. O. s best advice to india during this lockdown to make sure there is not a outbreak and another lockdown in the near future . And, how far are we from a vaccine or medicine . Thank you very much. Dr. Ryan your question is a very good one. I think the director general answered that question very much in his address. He mentioned the six things every country needs to do to use this window of opportunity. As i said in Previous Press conferences, india has incredible capacities to leverage and expand its capacity, but it must do the things. You must have a system to find cases. You must test. You must expand your capacity to treat and isolate. You must be able to quarantine your contacts, and you must bring an all of government approach to the response. If those things are put in place, and i know they are being put in place, but we can accelerate that. India is a vast country. You can never look at india as one single entity, from an epidemiological perspective. Those of you in india who were involved in the process, the Indian Government fought polio by breaking it down from the village level all the way through the system. It went after the problem, after the poliovirus by district by district by district, and india won. If india does the same thing, breaks down the problems, puts in measures needed both surveillance and health care measures and does that systematically, then there is a way out, there is a transition publicckdowns into a healthdriven response in which people dont have to stay locked in their homes for more time than is absolutely necessary. Without implementing necessary measures, and without putting in place those protections, its going to be very difficult for countries to exit, and when they do they may have resurgence. I think thats the challenge now. We have time, very little, as the director general said. Ofecond, but small window opportunity. What countries do today, tomorrow, then next day will matter. Dr. Van kerkhove to add to that, we have seen countries that have gone to the socalled lockdowns, Public Health measures and distancing measures, and we need to learn from all these countries that have applied these measures at Different Levels of intensity. Were takent measures in china and in particular in wuhan, in hubei. Measures are being now, and the reason they are being lifted is because these systems are in place to quickly identify and isolate any cases that pop up. Now what we see in china, we are not seeing indigenous cases locally transmitted. We are seeing importations, more importations than are actually being detected from local transmission. We havent had local transmission, i believe, in a couple of days now. My point in bringing up china, they looked at a staggered approach of lifting measures, not all at once across the whole country. In different parts of the country, they applied to different intensity of measures, so it wasnt a total lockdown in all places across china. We know in singapore they used a different approach. They did have some application of social, physical distancing measures, but they did not close their schools. So its really important for us to take the examples of all these countries and look in detail about what they did, as it relates to the epidemiology in their country, and learn from them. We are doing that now. We are taking very detailed looks at what every country is doing, what countries have done and the levels of success they have had, so again we can come back and say, these were the things that really have worked. We know the things we are telling you. These are the things that work. We know they are incredibly difficult, but what we dont want is to get into a situation where you have a lockdown, and then you lift it, and then you have a resurgence, and then you have a lockdown, and you have this endless cycle. We need to break that cycle, so these measures in place are temporary. We know these are incredibly difficult, and we thank you for playing your individual part in this outbreak. But we know these things work. They are temporary. We will get through this. But those measures to find those cases, isolate those cases, find and quarantine your contacts, treating patients who require treatment, is really critical. Think for and i with 606 cases, i already outlined the six steps. Doing that now will help india spreadingom the virus to more places, or getting bigger. India has the capacity, and it is very see indiaand good to is taking early measures. To suppress and control it as soon as possible. Important, like tots happening in india, cut it from the bud, when you only have 606 cases. Thank you, dr. Tedros. He now have camila from t financial times. Are you on the line . Yes. Please go ahead. Stion, talking about risk to essential medical supply chains. Are any parts of that chain under particular strain at the moment . Dr. Ryan i think you would have to say that all elements of the supply chain are under extreme strain at the moment, production, distribution, delivery. There are Different Reasons driving that. Production in some cases, for example, a lot of the rubber used to produce rubber gloves is produced in a small number of countries. If they havees, difficulty in their supply chain or have difficulty pushing things to the international market, the place that makes the difficulty, have not because they lack Production Capacity but because they lack raw materials. There are problems all along that jane. Chain. The simple issue is demand, because our current production of protective equipment and ventilators was obviously pretty adequate to meet Global Demand before this event began. Is unfortunately, the world not ready for a pandemic, and we dont have security stockpiles in place that are immediately deployable in order to scale up our capacity to protect our frontline Health Workers. There are shortages of ppe, shortages of ventilators and other products for the medical response to covid. We also have to avoid shortages in other medical supplies, as supply chains come under strain. That may be because of secondary effects of the virus, shutting down air corridors or cancellations of flights around the world. Many passenger flights around the world also carry cargo. Difficulties within shipping, crews, shipping agents are finding it hard to move materials around the world. There is strain on the whole system. We are working very, very closely, the director general after the launch of the humanitarian appeal had a very fruitful discussion with the secretarygeneral on dealing with this issue, and the huge commitment of the u. N. System to do every thing possible under the director generals updership to improve, scale and delivered to the extent possible essential supplies that frontline workers need around the world in terms of ppe, ventilators and other supplies. Theres been a huge scaling up of that capacity, and we will make further announcements in the coming days of further scaleups in that capacity to deliver. But what we also need is a rampup in production and funding for that material. I believe the general governor may director general may speak to this. We will very much raise this at the g20 meeting tomorrow. Dr. Van kerkhove if i could just add, mike outlined what we are doing to address this problem and how we are working with so many different partners, but we need to be clear. The world the world is facing a significant shortage of ppe for frontline workers. Protecting healthcare workers must be the top priority. We are working with Technical Partners across the globe to identify ways in which we can manage this current shortage while we try to find solutions. Some of these options are not ideal. This is not acceptable. We have to all play our part to make sure that we prioritize the use of ppe. We use ppe appropriately and that is for our frontline workers who are caring for patients. Dr. Hank you very much, we now have a question. My apologies if i have got your name wrong. From nation media africa. You are on the line . Yes, i am on the line. Can you hear me . Yes, very well. Please go ahead. I am just going to rush through it. I would like to know in the modeling that you guys have done indication of how this thing reacts to we have the african cdc. I would like to comment from the director general on how they plan to support. It was being funded by the au. The last time i talked to the director, money seems to be drying up there. The Health System in africa is very fragile. Thank you. Start. Could mike will supplement. I can start on the first part with the questions about the use of mathematical models to look at what may happen. We are working with a number of groups that are looking at these types of scenarios in terms of using available fud only logic epidemiologic data about this how this virus is transmitted, to use those parameters to estimate what may happen in a new population and in africa, for example. In using that information, you can estimate what case numbers and debts may look like deaths may look like if we dont do anything, if we dont have any intervention. Some of those numbers are quite high. Some of those numbs are quite scary. Those models can also look at what can happen as you implement certain interventions. These are the interventions which we have outlined, which are Public Health measures, which are physical distancing measures, which are making sure that you have Testing Capacity improved and finding all of your cases. When you look at those scenarios, those case numbers reduce. So that is what is important in those models. They also help us plan. They also help us estimate case numbers based on what level of severity they may have. If they may have a mild infection, moderate infection, may be severe and require oxygen. Estimateels help us what kind of supplies we need. We are using those right now to estimate what we would need to supply for countries. And so they have been very helpful. We can look at the country level, regional level. We are working with modeling partners to create tools that countries can use to help prepare. Just on the african cdc, the director general and i spoke with john, the director of africa cdc, and in fact has taken on a role as the special envoy of the director general for covid19. African cdc is a very important institution. Funding. General our director for the Regional Office for africa and john worked very closely together to ensure that Member States and countries in africa get the best possible Public Health and Health Advice and full support from both our organizations. We have worked together with the africa cdc on training Lab Technicians in covid19 diagnosis from all over africa. We have worked together on the distribution of Laboratory Tests and are currently working together with colleagues in china on the procurement and distribution of ppe across africa. So i would characterize very ,trong operational growing technical and operational relationship with our colleagues in the africa cdc. Who inly, in the future, itself is not a funding organization. We will always be advocating for the funding and support to strong african institutions to provide support all across the continent. And i am sure through this response, one of the benefits, if there is anything to be seen of benefit at the moment, is we need to build Stronger Public t subnational, a national, and at the global level. If any lesson is to be learned from the current pandemic, it is that we need Stronger Public Health Systems and we will work very hard with the Regional Office for africa, with john and africa cdc under the leadership of the director general to deliver Stronger Public Health Systems on the african continent in the coming years. Thank you very much, dr. Ryan. The next question is from kyoto. We have only got time for two more questions so i ask very much that you keep your question as sure as possible. Are you there . Can you hear me . Yes, we can. Please go ahead. Hi. Theestion to dr. Ryan on Tokyo Olympic games. What would the advice that who have given to International Olympic committee and japanese government before they made the decision . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your question. We have been working over many years with the International Olympic movement in providing them with Risk Management advice many, many for for many, many of their events going back to rio and previously. Anadvise organizing groups ioc, and people organizing huge events, how risks can be managed, minimized, and how any residual risk can be managed so that games can be carried up successfully and Mass Gatherings can go on without risk to Public Health. We have hadregard, many conversations with our colleagues in ioc and with the tokyo 2020 committee on the japanese government over the last two months in advance of their decision yesterday. Upcontinue to provide them to yesterday with advice on the developing and escalating pandemic. The likely situation that may julyin leader in june and and notwithstanding the excellent efforts in containing the disease. There are other factors that have to be taken into consideration, which would include potentially the situation in many other countries that might pertain at that time, the difficulty of movement, and the risk that might be associated with disease arriving in and potentially subsequently moving from japan to other areas. So many, many issues were put on the table. We stick to our job, which is to provide Public Health Risk Assessment and Public Health advice. The decision to postpone the olympics was made holy and solely by the ioc and by the japanese government. As the director general said in a statement, we fully support that decision. Dr. Ryan says two of the people who were in the queue put their hands down but we have a question from associated press. Please go ahead. There you are. Please go ahead. This is jamie from ap. I just wanted to ask you very the tweeting about that you did yesterday. You are pretty praiseworthy of work pretty praiseworthy you work pretty praiseworthy of were pretty praiseworthy of president trumps efforts. You said he was doing a great job. President trump from the beginning has sort of minimized the importance of this at the very start and is now talking about churches that might be packed into United States come easter time. How concerned are you about some of the decisions that he is making . Or do you really think he is doing a great job across the board . Thanks. Yeah, i stand by what i said. As you know, one of the recommendations from who is the whole of government approach involving all sectors. And the principal, which is the head of state, taking responsibility, and leading the whole response, and thats exactly what he is doing, which we appreciate, because fighting this pandemic needs political commitment. And commitment at the highest level possible. And the president s commitment, you have already seen it. The world has seen it. That kind of leadership is a very, very important, a whole of government approach to mobilize all sectors. Sectors and stop or suppress the pandemic. I know he is doing all he can. Not only the whole of government expandingbut the testing and other recommendations we are making are also in play. He takes that seriously takes that seriously. That is what we see. I had a conversation, i had a chance to discuss with him and and hesat he said believe that kind of political commitment and bringcal leadership can change or can stop this pandemic. Again, just to sort of earlier today, we spoke with to veryuci and we are impressed to see the work and that their institution and other institutions, technical, Public Health, research and other institutions are doing in the United States, but also supporting on the international front. We have had the benefit of the cdc atlanta president here in geneva for more than a year now between ebola and covid19. Our colleagues at nih have innovated and managed working with others in the United States to start the first trials of vaccines. Nih and ourselves are working very closely together on trials of existing therapeutics. The fda have been exceptionally helpful in the regulatory side and are working with us on everything from animal models to Vaccine Development and much, much more. We rely heavily on the and publicinnovation health apparatus of the United States. Really appreciate the way dr. Fauci spoke about the data, spoke about getting down to the state and county level and working through the problem and working through the issues. We remain impressed by the work being done on the state level, by state and county health departments. Now is the time to support them. Now is the time that Health Workers all over the world needed to get the support to do the jobs that they need to do. They are heroes and we are all there to support them. Thank, dr. Ryan. On the inspiring note, we will close this press conference. Thank you very much, everybody, for attending. We will send the audio, we will send the transcript as usual. We will also send you information about the who film festival. Thank you again and we will reconvene on friday. Thank you. Thank you and see you on friday. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up thursday morning, detroit News Washington correspondent keith wang discusses the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the u. S. Auto industry. N, a former Nevada Republican congressman and current chair of the National Commission on military, national, and Public Service talks about National Service and the coronavirus pandemic. Williamsnes katie bo on the defense production act and its potential use during the pandemic. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern thursday morning. Join the discussion. On wednesday, the Senate Passed a 2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill, the largest emergency aid package in u. S. History. The bill passed by a vote of 960. Components, 4 main direct Cash Payments to individuals, federal relief for small businesses, target lending to industries impacted by the pandemic, and funding for hospitals and health centers. The house is expected to take up the bill when they return friday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Watch live gavel to gavel coverage of the u. S. House when they return here on cspan. Hat must carry on trading. I think the Prime Minister is here. Order. Ive a short statement to make. It is