COVID-19 Virtual Press conference transcript - 10 May 2021
Overview
00:00:29
CL Good
day and hello to wherever you're listening to us today. It is Monday 10th
May 2021. My name is Christian Lindmeier and I'm welcoming you to today's
global COVID-19 press conference. Simultaneous interpretation is provided in
the six official UN languages, Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Spanish and
Russian, plus Portuguese and Hindi.
The participants here in the room are Dr Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan, the Executive Director
of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical
Lead on COVID-19, Dr Mariangela Simao, Assistant Director-General for Access to
Medicines and Health Products, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist and I
believe we'll have also Dr Bruce Aylward, Special Advisor to the
Director-General and the Lead on the ACT Accelerator with us.
In order to get later in the queue for questions
please raise your hand with the raise your hand icon. Now let me hand over to
the Director-General for the opening remarks.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Christian. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Globally we're now seeing a plateauing in the number of COVID-19 cases and
deaths with declines in most regions including the Americas and Europe, the two
worst-affected regions. But it is an unacceptably high plateau with more than
5.4 million reported cases and almost 90,000 deaths last week.
00:02:19
Any decline is welcome but we have been here
before. Over the past year many countries have experienced a declining trend in
cases and deaths, have relaxed public health and social measures too quickly
and individuals have let down their guard only for those hard-won gains to be
lost.
And cases and deaths are still increasing
rapidly in WHO's South-East Asia region and there are countries in every region
with increasing trends. Today the WHO Foundation is launching the Together For
India appeal to raise funds to support WHO's work in India including the
purchase of oxygen, personal protective equipment and medicines. To donate go
to who.foundation and look for the black donate button and select the Together
For India appeal.
Globally we're still in a perilous situation.
The spread of variants, increased social mixing, the relaxation of public
health and social measures and inequitable vaccination are all driving
transmission. Yes, vaccines are reducing severe disease and death in countries
that are fortunate enough to have them in sufficient quantities and early
results suggest that vaccines might also drive down transmission.
00:04:01
But the shocking global disparity in access to
vaccines remains one of the biggest risks to ending the pandemic. High and
upper-middle-income countries represent 53% of the world's population but have
receive 83% of the world's vaccines. By contrast low and lower-middle-income
countries account for 47% of the world's population but have received just 17%
of the world's vaccines.
Redressing this global imbalance is an essential
part of the solution but not the only part and not an immediate solution. We
cannot put all our eggs in one basket. We have many vaccines for many diseases
but for each of them we still need a combination of vaccines and public health
measures.
The same is true with COVID-19. Vaccines prevent
disease but we can also prevent infection with public health tools that have
been so effective in so many places. My message to leaders is, use every tool
at your disposal to drive transmission down right now. Even if your country has
a downward trend now is the time to surge your capacities.
00:05:42
Even in countries with the highest vaccination
rates public health capacities must be strengthened to prepare for the
possibility of vaccine-evading variants and for future emergencies. My message
to individuals is, every contact you have with someone outside your household
is a risk. The level of risk varies according to the type of contact, the
duration of contact and the level of transmission where you live.
Each contact might carry a small risk on its own
but the more contacts the higher the right. In many northern hemisphere
countries where the weather is warmer people are getting together for social
gatherings. In the southern hemisphere cold temperatures are driving people
inside.
Both situations carry different types of risk
but when you know your risk you can lower your risk. There will come a time
when we can all take off our masks, when we no longer have to keep our distance
from each other, when we can once again go safely to concerts, sporting events,
rallies and restaurants, as people in some countries are able to do now because
they have no transmission.
00:07:23
But for most of the world's population who are
not yet vaccinated we're not there yet. To get there we continue to urge all
countries to develop and implement comprehensive and cohesive national plans
based on the ten pillars of WHO's strategic preparedness and response plan.
How quickly we end the pandemic and how many
sisters and brothers we lose along the way depends on how quickly and how
fairly we vaccinate a significant proportion of the global population and how
consistently we all follow proven public health measures. Christian, back to
you.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Tedros. With this we'll open the floor to questions from the
media. As said before, please raise your hand with the raise your hand icon.
We'll start with Suyatapa Bhattacharya from the Wall Street Journal. Suyatapa,
please unmute yourself.
Suyatapa. Do you hear us? If so please unmute
yourself. We seem to have trouble with Suyatapa. We'll come back to you in
moment when we have figured this out. Let's start with Kristof Vogt from the
AFP. Kristof, please unmute yourself.
00:09:02
KR Hello,
good evening. Thank you for taking my question. This one was on Sinopharm. The
WHO provided emergency listing last Friday on the Sinopharm vaccine but at the
same time we saw some worrying reports from the Seychelles where this vaccine
was used quite a bit and still the pandemic doesn't seem to abate and the
numbers are going back up. Can you tell us what's happening there, is it due to
the vaccine, is it several different factors? Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much. Mariangela Simao, please.
MS Thank
you, Kristof. Let me start and then colleagues can talk about the Seychelles
situation specifically. Sinopharm has received an emergency use listing by WHO
on Friday after an extensive review by an external technical advisory group
that looked at different data. We did site inspections in China in January and
February so the good manufacturing practices; Sinopharm is compliant.
00:10:15
We also assessed the clinical data that's
available for Sinopharm and it was also considered suitable on efficacy, safety
and good manufacturing practice.
The specific situation of Seychelles; we know
that the vaccines we have right now in the market; we still have data proving
that they are efficacious against severe disease so there's less data about
transmissibility.
I don't know the specific situation of
Seychelles but Sinopharm have been very much used globally and I think 62
million doses have already been applied and it has been considered both safe
and efficacious. I don't know if anyone wants to complement on...
CL We're
calling out for Dr Kate O'Brien, the Director of Immunisation, Vaccines and
Biologicals, who should be online. Kate.
KOB Thank
you so much. Yes, the situation in the Seychelles; we're in direct
communication with the Ministry about this. It is a more complicated situation
than the top-line messages. As was noted, the vaccines are highly efficacious
against severe cases and deaths. Most of the cases which have occurred are mild
cases.
00:11:54
However what is also important is that a
substantial fraction, over 80% of the population, has been vaccinated but as we
know, the vaccines after a single dose, the Sinopharm vaccine really requires
two doses and some of the cases that are being reported are occurring either
soon after a single dose or soon after a second dose or between the first and
second doses.
So in general I think when we see cases
continuing to occur in the setting of vaccine it really does require a very
detailed assessment of what the situation is, first of all what the strains are
that are circulating in the country, secondly when the cases occur relative to
when somebody received doses, third what the severity of the cases is.
Only by doing that kind of evaluation can we
make an assessment of whether or not these are vaccine failures or whether it
is more about the kinds of cases that are occurring, the milder end of cases
and then the timing of the cases relative to when individuals received doses.
That evaluation is ongoing and we're supporting
and engaging with the country to understand the situation.
00:13:15
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Kate O'Brien. We'll now try again with Suyatapa Bhattacharya
from the Wall Street Journal. Suyatapa, please unmute yourself.
SU Hello.
Can you hear me?
CL Very
well. Go ahead.
SU Thank
you. My question's about the India variant and whether you are thinking of
classifying it as a variant of concern and why.
CL Thank
you very much. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, please.
MK Thanks
very much for the question. I assume you're talking about the B1617 virus
variant that was first identified in India. Indeed this is one that has been
classified as a variant of interest by WHO. Over the weekend and last week and
into today our epi team and our lab team has been discussing with our virus
evolution working group this variant, this B1617 and everything that you know
about it in terms of transmissibility and any studies that are being done in
India as well as in other countries where this virus variant is circulating.
00:14:20
It is important to note that this lineage, this
B1617 has three sub-lineages, the point one, point two, point three. I won't go
into that level of detail. All of that will be provided in our sitrep tomorrow
where we will outline all of the information that we know about each of those
sub-lineages.
Having said that, in consultation with our virus
evolution working group and our epi teams and our lab teams internally there is
some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B1617.
There is a pre-print that is out so this is a
paper that has not undergone peer-review and it's of a limited number of
patients, suggesting that there is some reduced neutralisation and as such we
are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level.
There will be much more detail provided in our
sitrep tomorrow around all of the available information that we have. What we
do want to say is that even though there is increased transmissibility
demonstrated by some preliminary studies we need much more information about
this virus variant and this lineage and all of the sub-lineages.
00:15:27
So we need more sequencing, targeted sequencing
to be done and to be shared in India and elsewhere so that we know how much of
this virus is circulating. We need more information on the epidemiologic
studies that are underway, the studies that are evaluating neutralisation,
severity.
So far for the information that we have the
public health and social measures work but we need to work that much harder to
control any virus variants that have demonstrated increased transmissibility.
We don't have data yet on diagnostics,
therapeutics and vaccines and we don't have anything to suggest that our
diagnostics, our therapeutics and our vaccines don't work. This is important.
We will continue [sound slip] the spread, limit infections, prevent the spread
and reduce severe disease and death with the tools that we have at hand.
So much more work is being done around the world
with our partners. We do have this global risk monitoring and assessment
framework for variants and this is exactly why we have established something at
the global level which covers everything from surveillance to detect mutations
and variants through a proper and robust assessment for each of these mutations
and each of these variants of interest as well as variants of concern.
00:16:41
What this means for everybody at home is that
any of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses that are circulating can infect you and can
spread and so everything in that sense is of concern so all of us at home no
matter where we live, no matter what viruses are circulating; we need to make
sure that we take all of the measures at hand to prevent ourselves from getting
sick.
It's the individual-level measures; physical
distancing, hand hygiene, wearing of a mask, avoiding private spaces, improving
ventilation, spending more time outdoors as opposed to indoors if you can, work
from home; all of the measures that are at hand and ensuring that governments
provide a supportive and enabling environment so that we can carry out those
measures that keep us safe.
So more information on this variant of concern,
the B1617, will be issued tomorrow in our sitrep and we'll make sure that the
link is made available. It's available on our website and you should read that
sitrep every week if you can.
00:17:40
We're very grateful for colleagues in India as
well as around the world with our virus evolution working group and elsewhere
who will continue to carry out the studies to help us properly assess what the
impact of this variant of concern is.
But so far our public health and social measures
work. We need to continue to do it all to limit the spread.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Van Kerkhove. Now Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist.
SS Maybe
just to add very briefly to what Maria said; sequencing is telling us a lot
more about this virus in real time than we've known in previous outbreaks. In
fact for many diseases we really don't have this kind of genomic information
that we have.
So it's a good thing because we can keep up with
the evolution of the virus but we also need to take a balanced approach and, as
Maria said, whatever the variant the basic modes of transmission and the
clinical illness remain the same and the public health measures remain the
same.
00:18:43
We do know that the Indian Government has a
consortium for genomic surveillance and that there are a number of
investigations going on now on the B1617 variant that are looking at the
transmissibility, the clinical severity and also the response of the virus to
antibodies that have been generated in people who've been vaccinated with the
different vaccines that have been used in India, especially the covaxin and the
covisheen and also the Sputnik vaccine.
So over the coming weeks there'll be much more
data forthcoming but variant just on the genomics alone doesn't mean anything.
It only tells us the story when we know the complete information both on the
clinical profile, on how it's spreading, the transmission as well as on how
it's behaving in the community in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.
So it's really important to undertake those
studies and to give enough time for that data to come in but again just to
emphasise that what we know now is that the vaccines work, the diagnostics
work, the same treatments that are used for the regular virus work so there's
really no need to change any of those.
00:20:00
In fact people should go ahead and get whatever
vaccine is available to them and that they're eligible for. Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Swaminathan. Next question goes to Michael Butokiev from CNN
Opinion. Michael, please unmute yourself.
MI Thank
you for taking my question. It's been a while; good to be back. My question is
the following; vaccine diplomacy has become part of our COVID-19 lexicon.
However it seems that many of the countries are engaging in diplomacy not
simply for altruistic reasons. What I mean by that is many recipient countries
are being strong-armed to guarantee market access or adhere to an unwritten set
of diplomatic rules.
I was wondering if you might advocate a code of behaviour
for countries engaging in vaccine diplomacy because I think a lot of countries
that are poor - and Dr Tedros mentioned the poorer countries are not getting
enough vaccines - I think are getting into situations which they might regret
later on.
Just quickly, the numbers are quite startling.
China is donating three vaccines to 69 countries, commercial order to 28
others; Russia's Sputnik vaccine to 17 [?] countries and finally, as we know,
India is also exporting and with them and China and Russia, all three
countries, their domestic vaccination rates are very low.
00:21:35
So can some kind of better code of conduct be
advocated here? Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much, Michael, for this. Let me look around; maybe start with Dr Bruce
Aylward. Thank you very much.
BA Thank
you, Christian, and, Michael, thank you very much for the comment. We're not in
a position to comment on any of the conditionalities that have surrounded the
donations of vaccines to one country or another. We actually don't have a good
sense of those.
In terms of a code of behaviour, Michael, the
COVAX facility, the whole concept of COVAX is the code of behaviour that we've
been urging that should underpin the global roll-out of vaccines and that is
that we have a common approach, a common framework, a common roll-out of these
products to make sure that they go to the countries and populations that need
them most based on the principle of equity that we've been talking about all
along.
00:22:39
The goal of course is a roll-out first to make
sure we protect our healthcare workers, make sure we protect our older
populations most at risk of dying from the disease. It was recognised over a
year ago when we started to try and develop vaccines that as we did so they
would be in incredibly scarce supply from the outset.
So the establishment of COVAX and the allocation
mechanisms that underpin it were putting in place a global code of behaviour,
in effect, that would try to address some of the challenges that you referred
to.
In that code of behaviour what we are promoting
is global co-operation through a common process with complete transparency on
who's getting which vaccines in what order and then with as many doses as
possible through the COVAX facility so that we can ensure the equitable roll-out,
that populations, countries that may not have the relationships, geopolitical
or otherwise, that would make them favoured candidates for donation...
Countries should not have to rely on the favour of others to be able to access
vaccines in a crisis like this.
00:23:53
So the code of behaviour is very much anchored
in the principles that underpin the COVAX facility.
CL Thank
you very much. That was Dr Bruce Aylward, the Special Advisor to the DG and the
Lead on the ACT Accelerator. Mariangela Simao, please.
MS Thank
you, Michael. Let me add to what Bruce was saying in terms of the COVAX
facility being an equitable access mechanism that we are very much working on
and striving to get enough doses to be distributed.
I would say we also need a change in the... It's
not necessarily the code of behaviour but I think we are seeing also we are
living in a world where many of the producers are moving towards a
profit-driven approach instead of an equitable access approach.
So WHO's pushing very hard at the highest level
for everyone who's manufacturing vaccine to consider seriously putting these
vaccines in a global mechanism that will ensure all countries have access to
them, not only high-income countries who can pay more for the vaccines, s we're
seeing right now.
00:25:20
So I think the code of behaviour, when we're
talking about it, is not only for vaccine nationalism; it's for everyone who
has a product that can be a public health good and can help us in this acute
phase of this pandemic. Thank you.
CL The
Director-General, please.
TAG Yes,
thank you. I just wanted to say a few words. In international relations there
are three ways of engagement, as you know. One is co-operation, the second is
competition and the third is confrontation or conflict. You can choose one of
the three Cs.
For to end this pandemic the only choice we have
is co-operation. Vaccine diplomacy is not co-operation. It's actually a
geopolitical manoeuvring so it's the clear and clean co-operation that can help
us to end this pandemic.
I don't think this is really something that many
don't understand; everybody understands it but from WHO's side we have been
saying, we cannot defeat this pandemic through competition, we can't. If you
compete for resources or if you compete for geopolitical advantages then the
virus gets advantage.
00:27:07
If there is confrontation that even is the worst
and we have seen it, by the way; there was confrontation that undermined the
whole response, especially last year. So the choice is clear; co-operation,
global co-operation, global solidarity and that needs actually a very basic
principle of identifying the virus as a common enemy.
So there is clarity on who the enemy is and how
it has to be tackled. It's a virus, a common enemy that can only be tackled
through co-operation so that's what we're saying repeatedly and what you said;
thank you so much for this very important question. It's undermining or
delaying the end of this pandemic.
Again we repeat, the only option is
co-operation; no competition, no confrontation or conflict. Competition and
confrontation helps the virus. Competition and confrontation or conflict
divides us and again helps the virus so our choice should be co-operation.
Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much. We'll continue with Shoko Koyama from NHK. Shoko, please unmute
yourself.
SH Hello,
Christian. Can you hear me?
00:28:46
CL Very
well.
SH Thank
you for taking my question. The spokesperson of Taiwan said that today was the
deadline for the online registration for this year's World Health Assembly and
they haven't yet received an invitation. May I ask if the deadline of the
online registration was today and may I also ask WHO's position on inviting
Taiwan to the 74th World Health Assembly? Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much, Shoko. I believe we have Steve Solomon, the Principal Legal
Officer, online. Steven.
SS Thank
you. Thank you very much for the question. The deadline was in fact today. The
question of Taiwan's participation at the World Health Assembly is a question
for member states. The issue of the participation of Taiwanese experts with the
secretariat on our work responding to the COVID pandemic is a matter that the
WHO secretariat has engaged in very robustly.
Let me give you five examples of where we work
very closely with Taiwanese experts. The Taiwanese have a point of contact for
the international health regulations. They participate in key networks for
responding to COVID. They participate in the COVAX facility. They work with our
experts through the European Centers for Disease Control and we work
face-to-face through virtual meetings with Taiwanese experts and have done so
regularly for months.
00:30:40
Those are meetings between Dr Van Kerkhove,
who's present, and Dr Oliver Morgan and their experts in Taipei. So on a
technical level there is more and more robust co-operation on COVID. This is
also the case on other public health issues where Taiwanese experts have
participated - have been invited to five meetings just this year on a range of
public health matters.
Taiwanese experts and authorities are
participating with WHO in areas involving influenza and in the fight against
cancer as well so participation at the expert level, which is something the
secretariat is absolutely committed to with all people everywhere and with all
experts everywhere, is very robust.
When it comes to participation at the World
Health Assembly, invitation to the World Health Assembly, that is something
that is in the hands of the member states, the countries that constitute the
assembly and that is a decision that they are empowered to make. It is not a
decision where the secretariat has the power to act when there has been
clear... when the Health Assembly has addressed itself to this point, as they
have repeatedly over many years.
00:32:18
I'll stop there and I hope that clarifies how we
participate at the technical level and the question of participation at the
Health Assembly. Thank you very much.
CL This
was Steven Solomon, the Principal Legal Officer for WHO. Thank you very much.
Next question goes to Emma Farge from Reuters. Emma, please unmute yourself.
EM Good
afternoon. A question for Dr Tedros, if I may, please. I bet in 2017 when you
were campaigning to be Director-General you never thought you'd be steering the
world through the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu. Do you have the
appetite to keep going as Director-General, will you seek another term? Do you
think you can count on the support of your Government and Africa if you do?
And may I sneak in a quick one about Congo? Is there
any update at all on the probe into sexual exploitation there which was
launched six months ago? Thank you very much.
00:33:22
CL Let
me start with the Director-General.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much. I will start with the second one. As you know, there
was an allegation of sexual exploitation and abuse and we have decided actually
as soon as we got the information, we have decided to do it differently.
Normally we could have sent an investigation
team to investigate and propose and so on but we wanted to do it in a different
way and this time we appointed or established an independent commission. In
addition to that, the independent commission after we selected the co-chairs
actually, the co-chairs selected the rest of the panel.
Plus the commission hired an external
investigation firm to do the job so this would help us to get an independent
assessment and also recommendations, recommendations that can help to address
the perpetrators but at the same time recommendations to help address if there
are systemic problems.
So this is the first time we're doing it. We're
moving into uncharted waters actually but we believe that it's very important
to do it differently instead of doing things the same way again and again and
expecting a different result. That may also help us to strengthen our own
internal investigation capacity too.
00:35:11
Then coming to my specific question, as you
said, not only COVID; I started with Ebola in Western DRC, Ecuator province;
that was in May 2018. That was actually stopped or the outbreak of Ebola in the
Ecuator province was over in three months.
Then another one started in September 2018 in
DRC again but in eastern DRC in a more difficult place, as you may know, North
Kivu, which has security challenges; more than 17 armed groups operate in that
area.
Not only was there the Ebola challenge but there
was a security challenge. I have been to that place more than 11 times and my
colleagues and other partners; we all did our best to end it but it took us
almost two years to stop it; a very challenging one.
Then of course COVID and we're still working on
it so I think it's time to still focus on this pandemic; very unprecedented so
I'm currently focused on fighting this pandemic with my colleagues and working
day and night. Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much, Director-General. The next question goes to Gabriela Sotomayor
from Progreso. Gabriela, please unmute yourself.
00:37:04
GA Thank
you, hola. A few days ago more than 10,000 people attended a rock concert in
Wuhan in China. People sang, they danced, most of them did not have a mask on.
We know that at the beginning of the pandemic they were very strict but how
have they managed it, what other steps have they taken, have all the people of
the city been vaccinated, what do you know, about Wuhan right now? Thank you.
MR Maria
may supplement but I think Wuhan and most of China are enjoying the benefits of
having controlled the virus. No, the vaccination rates in Wuhan are probably no
higher than anywhere else in China and certainly vaccination doesn't account
for the situation they currently experience.
Wuhan in particular suffered hugely in the first
part of this pandemic, made huge sacrifices, brought the disease under control
and importantly has kept the disease under control and it's not unusual in
situations of very low incidence for people to be meeting outside without
masks.
00:38:19
You're seeing the same in Australia, you're
seeing the same in New Zealand, you're seeing the same in many countries who
took a comprehensive approach which focused on continued reduction of exposure
while dealing with all the other issues.
That ability to reduce exposure to a level where
their incidence of disease dropped to very, very low levels allows countries,
cities, areas with that degree of control over the virus to have more choices
about social life, about economic life and I think those choices are now being
exerted.
Having said that, I do believe China and other
countries who have very low incidence remain exceptionally vigilant, constantly
on the look-out for that single case, that cluster and they react extremely
quickly when they see those clusters in order to maintain that level of
control.
So they're in a phase of control in Wuhan in
China and in other countries where they have extremely low incidence with a
degree of risk for reintroduction for which they maintain heightened alert but
in the meantime allowing people to go about their normal daily lives. I think
that's the situation many countries would like to be in right now with or
without vaccines. Maria.
00:39:34
MK Not
much to add because I think you've covered it but I think what we see in Wuhan
and what we see in other parts around the world are a demonstration of how this
comprehensive approach works in controlling COVID even without the vaccine so
adding the vaccine just makes our control measures that much more powerful.
Not only do we see Wuhan and other parts of the
world really use this comprehensive approach of public health, identifying
cases, providing care for those who are infected in isolation facilities,
whether they were in hospitals for those who were severe and had underlying
conditions, who were at risk for developing severe disease as well as isolating
those who have mild disease or who are asymptomatic outside of the home in
special facilities that were built.
They had contact tracing systems in place to be
able to provide supported quarantine for those who are contacts of individuals
who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus and they followed through. I think
that's the other thing; it's not just the application of a strong,
comprehensive plan; it's following it through all the way through, driving
transmission down but keeping it at a really low level.
00:40:45
And, as Mike said, remaining at the ready, being
extremely vigilant, remaining at the ready so any additional cases that pop up
are dealt with very quickly in a supported way and so that any clusters do not
become bigger.
If you remember, the way that we've talked about
cases through all of our guidance materials is through these Cs; we call them
the four Cs - there're now seven - where we have no cases, we have sporadic
cases, clustering of cases, community transmission and community transmission
has four categories depending on the level of intensity of spread.
Once you get into intense transmission and
community transmission it becomes very, very hard to bring it back down to
lower levels of intensity but China and many other countries for that matter
showed us that it was possible by applying this comprehensive approach to all
of these elements that are outlined in WHO's strategic preparedness and
response plan that the Director-General mentioned again today.
00:41:47
All of these elements, these pillars of activity
need attention, need nurturing, need application to continue to drive
transmission down. Other message is, as you heard the Director-General say
today, even in countries that have controlled COVID it is really important to
remain vigilant, it's really important to remain at the ready because we remain
at risk because the virus is circulating in other parts of the world, in many
parts of the world.
With at least 5.4 million cases reported last
week this virus still has much room to spread if we allow it to so there's a
lot that we can do. China and other countries have shown us that a
comprehensive approach seen all the way through can really keep it down.
What you see with the opening-up of concerts,
the opening-up of social activities; that is the result of really dedication
from many around the world and so we advise to continue to remain vigilant and
to drive transmission down, prevent infections, among those who are infected
prevent the spread and among those infected make sure that we prevent them from
developing severe disease and death.
00:42:59
So public health and social measures and
vaccines and vaccinations are really the recipe but we need all of those
ingredients within that recipe, not just one.
CL Thank
you very much. We have time for one last question and that goes to Ashwin
Bashinger from the Observer Times India. Ashwin, please unmute yourself.
AS Thank
you for considering my question. [Unclear] the WHO bringing together the
government and private sector and academia, my question is, are WHO scientists
and scientists around the globe...
CL Ashwin,
we lost you there; the sound dropped.
AS Identified
virus or dynamic with...
CL Ashwin,
very sorry; the sound dropped twice now. Try one more time, please. Our last
call for Ashwin. The sound dropped unfortunately. Try one more time to unmute
yourself.
00:44:24
AS My
question is, have WHO scientists and scientists around the globe identified
virus cost dynamic which is important in development of safe and efficacious
vaccines? This virus cost dynamic varies in SARS CO2 variants.
CL Not
sure what the question is, Ashwin. I'm sorry. We're trying to...
AS Hello.
Can I repeat?
MK Yes,
I think maybe I didn't quite get the question, Christian, if you could clarify
that.
CL Exactly.
No, Ashwin. What we'll do is please try to send it in writing and if we don't
get to it now any more - which we won't - we'll answer in writing because we
don't want to interpret or guess what you're asking; it's not worth it. So
please get it to us in writing and we'll answer you in writing afterwards. With
this we've reached the end of today's press conference. Thank you very much and
sorry, Ashwin, that we didn't get to you properly and to all the others; we
couldn't take any more.
We'll send the audio files of course right after
this press conference together with Dr Tedros' remarks and the full transcript
will be posted on the WHO website tomorrow morning. Any other follow-up
questions - and of course for you, Ashwin - please email mediaenquiries@who.int
With this I'll hand over to Dr Tedros for the
final remarks.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much, Christian, and thank you to all colleagues from the
media who have joined. See you in our upcoming presser. Thank you so much.
00:46:19