Welcome to the Health Organization press briefing on covid19. We have with us as always the w. H. O. Director general ted, mike ryan, executive director and doctor maria, they take the lead for covid19. Doctor will begin with an update, then when he has finished his opening remarks, i will open the meeting to questions. If youre connected by zoom, please use the raise hand icon to get into the queue to ask her questions, if you connect by phone please hit 9 to indicate you want to ask for questions. I will apologize right now to all those who miss out. We have more than 260 people on the line already connecting and asking questions. So we have to restrict this briefing to announce with our speakers who are meeting the response and can get back to the other demands of their time. I will now hand over to doctor. Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon and 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 committee took a difficult but wise decision to postpone the lumpy games. I think Prime Minister and the members for making the sacrifice to protect the health of athletes and officials. We look forward to next year olympics which we hope will be an even bigger and better celebration of our shared humanity. And we look forward to join. We have overcome many pinned mx and crisis before. We will overcome this one too. The question is, how large of a prize will be paid. Already we have lost more than 16000 lives. We will lose more. How many more will be determined by the decisions that we make in the actions that we take now. To show the spread of covid19, many countries are introduced and presented majors. At significant social and economy costs. Closing businesses, canceling sporting events and asking people to stay home and to stay safe. We understand that this country are now trying to announce when and how we will be able to ease the measures. The uncertainty depends on what countries do, was this proclamation wide majors in place . Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population in using the pressure on Health Systems but on their own these measures will not extend. The point of the actions is to enable the more precise and try to get to the measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives. To use this time to attack the virus, you have created a second for opportunity, the question is, how will you heal it. There are six key actions that really come in first, train and deploy your publichealth force. Second, implement a system to find every suspected case a Community Level. Third, run Production Capacity and availability of testing, fourth identify, adapt the Key Facilities you will use to treat and isolate patients. Fifth, have a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts and finally, number six refocus the whole government on suppressing and controlling teamcovid19. These are the best way to stop and when the restrictions are lifted, the virus does not research. The last thing any country needs is to open schools and businesses only to be forced to close them again because of the resurgence. Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test and treat are not only the best and fastest way out of social economy restrictions, they are also the best way to prevent them. More than 150 countries still have fewer than 100 cases. By taking the same aggressive actions now, these countries have the chance to prevent Community Transmission and avoid some of the more serious social and economy cost and other countries. This is especially relevant for many of the countries who Health Systems may collapse under the weight of the numbers of patients we have seen in some countries with Community Transmission. Today, i joined the United Nation secretarygeneral and secretarygeneral and executive director to launch the global appeal. To stop all the most fragile countries who have already suffered years of acute humanitarian crisis. This is much more than Health Crisis and we are committed to working as one from the brightest in consequences. We also welcome the generals call for grievances, were all facing a Common Thread in the only way to defend it is by coming together as one humanity. We are grateful for the more than 200,000 individuals and organizations who have been contributing to the covid19 response fund. It seems we launched less than two weeks ago and the fund has raised more than 95 million u. S. Dollars. I would like to offer my big thanks to gsk for its generous contribution of 10 million u. S. Dollars today. Although were especially concerned about countries, all countries have populations including older people. Older people carrying 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. We are listening to older people and those who work with and for them, to identify how best we can support them. We need to Work Together to protect older people from the virus and to reassure their needs are being meant for food, fuel, Prescription Medication and human interaction. Physical distance does not mean social distance. We all need to check in regularly on older parents, neighbors, friends or relatives who live alone or in homes in whatever way as possible so they know how much they are loved and valued. All of the things are important at any time but there more important during a crisis. Finally the covid19 pandemic has highlighted the need for compelling communication about Public Health. Last year, w. H. O. Announced the first festival, the volume quality and diversity surpassed her expectation. We received more than 1300 entries from 110 countries. And today we are announcing a short list of 45 excellent vital health topics. Were also announcing a distinguished panel of jurors who will judge the short list with the winners to be announced in may. We will show all the shortlisted films in the coming weeks on our website and social media channels. In this difficult time, film in either media at a powerful way, not only of communicating Important Health messages but also ministering one of the most powerful medicines, i thank you thank you doctor. We will now open the floor to questions, as i mentioned before a little housekeeping if you connect by zoom, use the razor hand icon to get in the queue. If youve connected via phone, hit 9. Please restrict your questions to one question, please try to keep them as short as possible because there are so many people who need to ask questions. In fact we had so many questions left over from monday i will now read a question from simon because he has been waiting three times to ask his question, i cannot see him in the queue so ill read it out, simon i hope you can hear this question. This is from simon, from today news africa, simon asks the coronavirus pandemic is fast spreading across africa and threatening to overwhelm our week healthcare system, the center for Global Development in washington, d. C. Is warning if developed countries do not support africa today, this pandemic will not be defeated. What type of concrete assistant can w. H. O. A drive to assist africa now before its too late. I can begin. W. H. O. Has Country Offices in every country in africa and our teams there have been supporting countries for many years. In addition to that are regional director has searched many staff on the office to support the countries and allow better support to be provided, we support the process of planning to dispatch lab test, we worked with the technicians all over africa and were currently working to increase the all the capacity and surveillance and clinical management. We will continue to work with them. In the international community, i think and for all countries of the south in low and middle Income Countries need support in the north, must with dealing with a massive crisis, it must move to protect the south because nobody is safe until were all safe. Thank you some much. The number of cases in africa is around 1600 as we speak, if you take the number of cases, this is an opportunity to use the recommendations i just made. Many to be able to cut it from the back, they contest, they can isolate and steal the number of cases is low. They should believe this thing is in their hands, they can do something to stop it as early as possible. But then of course we have a Global Responsibility and humanity and especially those countries like the g20, will have the g20 summit tomorrow, they should be able to support countries all over the world, not only from africa but all over the world with lowincome and middle Income Countries because its only through solidarity that we can support those countries. From w. H. O. Side, we have started as early as possible to stop the countries by providing test kits and we have provided test kids to more than 120 countries and a good number are from the african continent and also ppe 268 countries and most of the countries are from africa and w. H. O. Will continue to support the countries who need our support. In many stakeholders to build up our capacity to support countries as we have been doing. Thank you doctor. The next question from brazil. Somebody else who has been waiting to ask a question for a week, please go ahead. My question is on the president , i apologize on insisting on this but his remarks last night and over the last days, are they actually putting the lives of brazilians at risk, would you ask him to change his position intake responsibly . Thank you so much sir. I think we have spoken on this issue and issues like this before. We trust that our governments will take the appropriate action to Public Health risks which are real but we also understand the terms that the countries face in protecting economies and social systems, we must focus first on trying to stop the disease and saving lives. It is maybe just repeating what i said but to all countries in many countries already taking communitywide actions, closing schools, restricting and asking them to stay at home and all possibilities to have physical distancing. That is very important but at the same time we have our proposed six actions and that will also apply to any country and thats what we said. But our countries, 150 country with less than 100 cases and they have to be very serious at this stage when they have less number of cases and the first thing they should do, they should expand and train and deploy their healthcare workers as karen Public Health worth interim workforce. They should implement a system wide approach to find suspected cases are Community Levels and this is for all countries, even countries with no cases, we have sung countries that have not had any cases. And we even suggest countries who ramp up production and capacity and availability to do more testing and the recommendation we met, identify, adopt, we have to prepare enter prepare our facilities. In some countries, the numbers of cases have jumped in overwhelm the system and they were not prepared. It was very difficult to give service to patients who are coming to the hospital to get service. So preparing the system is very important for any country including the countries who dont have cases or less than ten cases or countries who have reported less than 100 cases or more than 100 cases or 1000 cases. In confirmed cases should also be isolated and this is the same recommendation for every country. In the other very important recommendation, we need to have all of government approach. Because this pandemic cannot be trusted with the Health Sector alone. We need to have all relevant sectors working together to suppress and control this pandemic. And not only the whole government approach, were also seen we need the trust of the community and community should be mobilized to do their share because this is everybodys business and every citizen has a responsibility to take apart. So the recommendations which we believe apply to all countries. This virus is very dangerous. And we have already counted more than 16000 deaths. If you remember we have been saying for more than two months, this virus is public enemy number one. Its a dangerous virus, we have been saying that the window of opportunity is narrowing in the time to act was a month or two months ago, thats what you have been saying. But we still believe there is opportunity, i think we squandered the first window of opportunity, but were saying in my message, i made it clear this is a Second Opportunity which we should not squander. And do everything to suppress and control the virus. And this is a responsibility for all of us, especially the political relationship is key, has to be able to mobilize communities also to take ownership and do the right things to suppress and control this pandemic. Thank you very much doctor. Now will move to italy, from public tv. Are you there . Can you hears . Please go ahead. Bad feedback. Can you please say your question again if not i will redo not because i do have some text on your question is sounds like we w. H. O. Thinks about testing an active surveillance in italy at this stage, what should they do in terms of testing and active surveillance . I think we actually spoke with the italian colleagues today and the Senior Member of our staff was currently embedded in a high level of advice. The regional director is also in contact with the ministry of health, italy is breaking down his problem. You see what the situation is said each administrative level and then you decide which tactics are better. Transmission is very intense and its very difficult to get a handle on testing all cases and doing Contact Tracing. We attempt to save live at this point in the lockdown measures are there but there are times in which transmission is not that intense and where theres a real possibility of avoiding the worst that is happened in many parts of northern italy. So i believe our colleagues are trying to scale up the trained workforce trained Public Health workers, get out into Community Detection to detect suspect cases to isolate suspect cases and to trace contacts. We fully understand in certain areas right in the center, epicenters it is difficult to do that when you are dealing with a heavy wave and dealing with the Health System with huge pressures that we really do admire our colleagues and they are heroes. They are putting up a courageous fight against this virus on behalf of their own people and on behalf of the world. Bleed like and support they are breaking the problem down. They are working their way through the problem and we will do everything in our power and the world Health Organization to support them in their efforts. Thanks. I could to supplement beyond italy i think there many countries that are looking at the situation in the transmission situation that they are in and the situation can seem completely overwhelming anw important it is as part of this comprehensive package 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 seems impossible. This is not something we can do. What should we do . We have been very clear that its critical that you test to find where this virus is so you know where you are fighting it to find all of your suspect cases and test the suspect cases find those contacts and find those contacts who develop symptoms and by doing that you are able to break down the transmission. When the situation is such that you have communitywide transmission and their some areas with very large outbreaks there ways which you may need to prioritize those actions they can break down the problem. Find those boundaries of where that big outbreak is so you can bring it more in the control and in making those tough decisions temporarily we are helping being able to find although suspect cases. As the director general has said the these socalled lockdown measures that many countries have implemented and more and more we are hearing about countries implementing those socalled lockdown measures this is buying you a little bit of time. That time needs to be used appropriately and 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 that we have on our web site which works through with you and with all countries which transmission scenario you may be in an outline some of the considerations that you may need to take if you are in clusters or Community Transmission with the overall aim of bringing it back to Community Level transmission to clustering such cases an individual chains of transmission so that transmission can be suppressed and you can bring the outbreak under control. We hear you. We understand that this is overwhelming in many cases but there are things you can do to suppress the transmission and save lives. Just two lines. You know the commitment of the Italian Government is really, really incredible and not only that the corporation from the citizens of the country from italy is also amazing. I think this will bring results and as mike said we will do everything to support and there are some good efforts now. We had a discussion with some of the senior experts from italy today and we hope putting it in progress will continue it. I am really happy to see that italy is doing all it can. Thank you. The next question is from kathryn. Kathryn can you hear me . Yes. Yes, please go ahead. Good afternoon. My question as people and most of the country are saying conventional equipment is not available as the w. H. O. Advised them to use innovation as south korea is doing by using interactive web sites backtracked movements of infected persons and toward that are used core operating with icu and could you talk about that . Thank you. Yes i would say this is probably the first epidemic and pandemic of the 21st century and 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 Risk Communication with communities and information and avoiding misinformation and countering misinformation is probably the most powerful use of information technology. We thank all those agencies both public and private who have joined with us and with our practice to really enhance the way in which we can communicate the best information to people. Beyond that very huge number of collaborations around surveillance, modeling and Predictive Modeling and Decision Support tools and many of these other applications. Korea and china itself and other countries have developed supported them in case detection in case reporting in case followup, tracking tracing and many other things. We ourselves have deployed a platform as a platform for Contact Tracing and followup and results in over 50 countries now. Their other i. T. Applications like intelligence sources which we use. We have used consortium with International Partners which contracts of what chronic information all over the world using ai agents that allow us to stay one step ahead in terms of information on the virus and other epidemics around the world. We are working with our chief Information Officer who is coordinating across the world with many institutions including the i. T. To develop the best possible solutions. There is a tremendous amount of innovation at a huge amount of enthusiasm but we need to turn that enthusiasm and innovation to people who work for frontline systems and thats what they are doing now. We do have to have on the back of our minds especially when it comes to collecting information individual systems tracking their whereabouts and movements that there is serious data protection, human rights and principles that are involved. We are very cognizant of that and we want to ensure developed are done in the most sensitive way possible and we never step beyond the principles of individual freedom of rights for individuals and for society. That yes there is a tremendous amount of collaboration on going i could focus for a lot, lot longer and baby mario want to speak about the model on prolific center of things where do you specifically but id like to again thank our partners from all over the world and the power of innovation, the power of ideas and we have had ideas for apps from people as young as 14 or 15 from individuals from small Startup Companies and huge globally based companies. Its been the most outstanding and most amazing outpouring of support and collaboration that i have seen in my career. Just had a couple of things from what we have seen particularly in this pandemic but we have seen another epidemic. The use of telemedicine for many people who need care who cant go to hospitals right now or cant go to their regular routine appointment are utilizing telemedicine having interactive chats and conversations with their doctors so they continue to have care from the comfort of their home without having to go to a health care facility. We are seeing the application of that across many different types of medication. 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. Their interactive ways in which they are continuing their education and learning to this pandemic even if they are not physically in school. We see interactive ways in which technology is helping us in training where we can do facetoface training because we are not able to move around the globe. We are finding ways in which we can provide materials either on line through our w. H. O. Platform and we have more than half a million people, 600,000 people who have enrolled in our courses in more than two dozen languages we are also using technology to find more interactive ways to have oneonone conversations with those frontline workers and work some of those very difficult questions that they may be having as they treat patients or care for patients or set up treatment units etc. And we we are also using technology in many different ways for the Predictive Analytics that mike mentioned there in large number of modelers. Heard me say this before, to work through scenarios and to work through predictions but of course these predictions are not yet so what is important is that we take all of these measures we been outlining from the start to make sure the predictions do not become reality. Lastly technology and i. T. And apps have completely changed the way we think of social distancing. We are saying physical distancing because we are talking about separating physically people but keeping them socially connected. We have ways in which we can do this now like we never have before so we keep people connected so they feel they are still part of this and we are all in it together even though keep in them physically apart. Thank you very much dr. Van kerkhove. The next question is from india today but before he comes on at like to remind everyone to use the raise your hand icon and its not hash nine it started nine on your keypad. Are you there and can you go ahead with your question . Thank you. Good evening everyone. In india there is a three weeks long lot down which means 1. 3 billion people are inside their homes right now. A country like india cannot afford this lockdown. What is w. H. O. s best advice during this lockdown to ensure that there isnt an outbreak in the near future and also please tell us how far are we from a possible vaccine . Thank you very much. Thank you. Your question is a very good one and i think the director general answer that question very much in his address. He mentioned the six things that every country needs to do to use this opportunity and as i said in Previous Press conferences and he has an incredible capacity to leverage accelerate and expand its capacity but it must do the things, you must have a system to find cases and you must detect and try to expand your capacity to treat her nicely. You must be able to quarantine your contacts and you must bring in all government approached to the response. If those things are put in place and i know they are being put in place that we can accelerate that in india is a vast country. You could never look at india just as one single entity from an epidemiological perspective than if you remember those of you and india who were involved in the process. India got rid of polio by breaking it down to the village level all the way through the system. It broke down the problem and went after the polio virus district by district by district by district and india one. If india does the same thing, breaks down the problem puts in place the measures that are needed both surveillance and health care measures and those that systematically then there is a way out. There is a transition from lockdown into a Public Health response in which people dont have to stay locked in their homes for more time than is absolutely necessary. Without implementing the necessary measures in without putting in place those protections is going to be very difficult and when they do they may have resurgence and i think thats the challenge. We have time, very little is the director general said, a small window of opportunity. What countries did today, tomorrow the next day is what is going to matter. If i could add to that we have seen countries that have gone through lockdowns and going to Public Health and distancing measures and we need to learn from all of these countries whove applied these measures at different levels. We know what measures we are taking in china particularly in wuhan and hubei and we know these measures are being listed now. The reason that they can be listed as because the systems are in place to actually quickly identify and isolate any cases that pop up. Now what we are seeing in china, we arent seeing indigenous cases, cases that are locally transmitted. There are more importations in china than are actually being detected from local transition. We have local transmission for a number of days now but put my point is bringing up china is saying they have looked at a staggering approach listing these measures. It wasnt all at once across the whole country. In different parts of the country they applied different intensities and levels of measures that was a total lockdown in all places across china. In singapore they used a different approach. They did have some application of social distancing or physical distancing measures but they didnt close their schools. Its really important for us to heed the examples of all of these countries and look in detail at what they did as it relates to the epidemiology in the country and learn from them. We are doing that now. We are taking very detailed looks at whatever country is doing, what countries have done and the level of success that they have had. Again we come back and say these are the things that have really worked. We know the things we are telling you, these are the things that were really know they are incredibly difficult but wed dont want to get into a situation where you have lockdown and then he lifted any other resurgence in a lockdown and you have an endless cycle. Read to break that cycle so of the measures that are put in place are temporary and we know they are incredibly difficult. We thank you for playing your individual part in this outbreak we know these things are temporary and we will get through this but those measures defined those cases, isolate those cases finding quarantine your contacts treating patients who require treatment is very critical. I think for india with 606 cases and i have already outlined the six steps doing that now will help india to stop the virus spreading to more places or getting bigger. As mike said india has the capacity and its very important and good to see that india is taking early measures and this will help you to suppress and control as soon as possible before it gets serious. So its very important. Whats happening in india when you only have 606 cases only. Thank you dr. Tedros. We now have kalina from the financial times. A question from camilla. Are you on the line . Yes yes, can you hear me . Yes, please go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. The risks to the medical supply chain are there any regions. [inaudible] yeah i think youd have to say all elements of the supply chain around the extreme moment from Raw Materials through production, distribution and delivery. There are different reasons. Production in some cases for example a lot of the rubber that is used is produced in a small number of countries. Those countries that difficulties in the general supply chain or have a problem of pushing things into the International Market and a place that makes it may have difficulty not because they lack reduction but because they lack Raw Materials. The simple issue is demand because the current production of equipment is. Adequate to meet Global Demand before this began but unfortunately the world is not ready for a pandemic and not being ready we dont have the security stockpiles in place that are immediately deployable in order to scale up our capacity to protect our Frontline Health workers and others. There are shortages of tbe and shortages of ventilators and other products for the medical response to cope it. We also have other medical supplies and supply chains that have come under strain and that made because the second effects of the virus and that is the shutting down of air and cancellation of flights all over the world and many passenger flights around the world, difficulties with shipping and cargo shipping. We are finding some shipping agents are finding it hard to move materials around the world so the strain on the whole system. We are working very closely with the director general after the launch of the humanitarian very fruitful discussions with the secretarygeneral in dealing with this issue and a huge commitment to the system to do Everything Possible to gather under the director generals leadership to improve and scale up and deliver to the extent possible the essential supplies that help frontline workers around the world in terms of ppe and ventilators and other supplies. There has been a huge scaling up of that capacity and we will make further announcements in the coming days of further scale ups in that capacity. But we also need is a rampup of production and a rampup of funding for that material. I believe the director general will be raising this issue very much in the g20 meeting tomorrow. If i could add micahs 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 is facing a significant shortage of ppe for our frontline workers including masks and gloves and gowns and face shields and protecting our Health Care Workers must be the top priority in this ppe. 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 and this is not acceptable we have to all play our part to make sure we prioritize the use of ppe, we use ppe appropriately and that is for frontline workers who are caring for patients. Thank you very much dr. Van kerkhove. We now the question from nation media africa. Are you on the line . I am on the line. Very well, please go ahead. I would like to know who would you have done. [inaudible] is there any indication of how this affects the african countries and quickly i would like to hear comments from the director general how they plan to support. [inaudible] what they are doing now is very critical. Thank you. I can start in mike will supplement that i can start out the first part of that with a question about the use of models to look at what may happen. We are working with groups that are looking at these types of scenarios in terms of using available epidemiologic information about how this virus is transmitted, the raid in which it has moved through populations in china and italy and other locations to use those parameters as we called them to estimate what may happen in a new population in africa for example and using that information you can estimate what case numbers may look like if we dont do anything, if we dont have any intervention. Some of those numbers are very high praise some of those numbers are quite scary but what those models also do is they can also look at what may happen as we implement certain interventions and these are the interventions that we have outlined which are Public Health measures which are physical distancing measures which are making sure you have Testing Capacity and finding all of your cases and when you look at those scenarios in those case numbers reduce. Thats what is important in those models. They also help us plan. They also help us estimate case numbers based on what levels. They may have moderate or severe infection and may need ventilatory support in respiratory support to those models help us estimate what kind of supplies we needed we are using those right now to estimate what we need to supply for countries. They have been very helpful. We can look at the country level and we can look at regional levels and looking at modeling partners to create tools that countries can use to help repair. Just on the efficacy director general and i spoke with john. John is the director of the cdc has taken on the role of the director general. For covid19. Efficacy is very important. Its he was a Founding Member before he took his role as director general for africa and john and i worked very closely together to make sure Member States and countries in africa get the best possible Public Health support from other organizations. We worked together with the african cdc training Lab Technicians with covid19 and we are currently working together with colleagues in china on the procurement and distribution of ppe across africa. A very Strong Operational technical and operational relationship with our colleagues and they african cdc and obviously in the future w. H. O. We will always be advocating for the funding support to african institutions to provide support all across the continent. Im sure through this response one of the benefits if there is anything to be seen as a benefit at the moment as we need to build public Health Systems at national and global level and any lesson to be learned from the current pandemic is we need Stronger PublicHealth Systems and we will work very hard with africa under the leadership of the director general to deliver Stronger PublicHealth 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 would ask very much that you keep it as short as possible. Are you there . He new hear me . Yes we can. Please go ahead. Im with the japanese news agency. A question for dr. Ryan. What is the advice that w. H. O. Is given to the japanese government before they make a decision . Thank you. Thank you for your question. We have been working over many years with the International Movement and providing them for many of their offense going back previously. We do not take any final decisions but we advise organizing groups with fifa and ioc and people are organizing huge offense and the kingdom of saudi arabia on how risks and the biologic risks can be managed and how they can be identified, how they can be minimized and how residual risks can be managed so games can be carried out successfully and gatherings can go on without a risk to Public Health both in the country gathering or subsequently after. In the same regard we have had many conversations with her colleagues at ioc and tokyo 2020 committee and the japanese government over the last two months in advance of their decision yesterday and we continue to provide them up until yesterday with advice on developing pandemic and the likely situation that may june and july notwithstanding the extra efforts in containing the disease. Their other fact theres that have to be taken into consideration and the situation many other countries the difficulty of movement and the rest that might be associated with disease arriving in subsequently moving from japan to other areas. We stick to our job which is to provide Public HealthRisk Assessment and Public Health advice. The decision to postpone the olympics was based wholly and solely on the ioc and the japanese government that is the director general said we fully support that position. Dr. Ranted the people have put their hands down but we have a question from the press. These go ahead. It looks like we dont have that question. There you are. Please go ahead. Hi. This is jamie from ap. I just wanted to ask you very quickly dr. Tedros about the tweeting you did yesterday. You were. Praiseworthy of President Trumps efforts and im just wondering he said he is doing a great job and im just wondering President Trump has from the beginning sort of minimized the importance of this at the very start and is now talking about churches that might be packed in the United States come easter time. How concerned are you about some of the decisions that he is making and do you really think hes doing a great job acrosstheboard . Thank you. I thought about what i said but as you know one of the accommodations of w. H. O. Is the whole of government approach involving all sectors and the principle the head of state taking responsibility and leading the whole response and thats exactly what he is doing which we appreciate. Fighting this pandemic needs political commitment and commitment at the highest level possible. The president s commitment, you have are reducing it. That kind of leadership is very very important in all of government approach. To mobilize all sectors and stop or suppress the pandemic. I know he is doing all he can to not only the role of government approach but the expanding, tesr accommodations we are making are also in play and he takes that seriously. That is what we see and i had a conversation and i had a chance to discuss with him and thats what he said and is doing. I believe that kind of clinical commitment in Political Leadership can bring change to stop this pandemic. Just to supplement again earlier today we spoke with bob redfield and tony fauci and we are very impressed to see the work that their institutions and other institutions, tablet fabulous Public Health researchers are doing but also supporting on the International Front and we have had the benefit of having had cdc atlanta president geneva four more at than a year and a half between ebola and covid19. Our colleagues at nih are the ones who have innovated and worked with others in United States. Nih and working closely together on the existing therapeutics, and the fda has been exceptionally helpful on the regulatory side and working with us on everything from animal models to maxing development and much, much more. We rely heavily on the scientific innovation of Public Health in the United States and very much appreciate the language dr. Fauci broke down issues yesterday when he spoke of the data and he spoke about getting down to the state of the county level and working through the problem, working through the issues. Again we remain impressed by the work being done at the state at the statelevel bistate county and Public Health departments. Nows the time to support them now is the time to help workers all over the world to do the jobs they need to do. They are our heroes and they need our support. Thank you very much. With that inspiring night we will close this press conference. Thank you very much everyone for attending. While send the audio and we will send you information about the w. H. O. Thank you again and we will reconvene on friday. Thank you. Thank you and we will see you on friday. The Senate Approved a 2. 2 trillion coronavirus economic aid plan with a vote of 960 that will expand Unemployment Benefits provide Cash Payments to Taxpayers Fund hospitals and state and local governments. I remember realizing a certain point why wasnt i political when i was young and you have to feel like you have something in common with other people and you have power. I started out with neither of those things and obviously ended up with plenty of both. Someone struggling with an addiction and struggling with bleak conditions in their life. Maybe they are homeless and suddenly Mental Illness that was untreated and someone you see on the side of the road living under a bridge panhandling on the subway. I was very wrong. Although addiction community there are plenty of people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder struggling as well. British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson provided an update on his governments Coronavirus Response at a press briefing in london. His chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser also answered several questions on the timeline of coronavirus tests being made available to National Health service workers