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COVID-19 Virtual Press Conference COVID-19 Virtual Press conference 2 October 2020 Speaker key: FC Fadela Chaib TAG Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus MI Michelle MK Dr Maria Van Kerkhove MR Dr Michael Ryan BA Dr Bruce Aylward AN Anias KA Katrine GA Gabriela JA Jason KO Konstantin SS Dr Soumya Swaminathan LA Laurent AS Ashley EC Dr Emer Cook JO John MC Michael 00:00:49 FC Hello, everybody. I am Fadela Chaib, speaking to you from the Geneva WHO headquarters and welcoming you to our global COVID-19 press conference today, Friday, October 2nd. I'm sorry for the delay in starting this press conference. Today the briefing will focus on the COVID-19 epidemiological situation and overview. Before we go deep in developing this important aspect Dr Tedros, our Director-General, will address you first. Joining him in the room are Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, Emergencies Programme, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead for COVID- 19, Dr Mariangela Simao, Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health Products, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist, and Dr Bruce Aylward, Senior Advisor to the Director-General and Lead on the ACT Accelerator. Welcome, all. This briefing is being translated simultaneously into the six official UN languages plus Portuguese and Hindi. Now without further ado I will hand over to Dr Tedros for his opening remarks. Dr Tedros, you have the floor. TAG Thank you, Fadela. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Overnight we heard that the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, and First Lady, Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19. I want to start today by wishing them both a full and swift recovery. Our prayers are with them. 00:02:42 The world is still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Every week we're adding approximately two million cases and, as you know, the world passed the tragic milestone of one million deaths this week. We mourn the loss of so many. At the same time we continue to support all countries to prevent infections and save lives. There are roughly four different situations that countries are currently facing. First, some countries jumped on the virus quickly and have avoided large outbreaks. Second, some countries have had large outbreaks but were able to bring them under control and they continue to suppress the virus. Third, while some countries brought the virus under control as economies and societies have eased restrictions there has been an increase in cases. Fourth, there are still some countries that are in the intense phase of transmission. 00:03:51 However what we have learned in every region of the world is that with strong leadership, clear and comprehensive strategies and consistent communication and an engaged, empowered and enabled population it's never too late to turn the tide. In Europe countries have done it. In Asia countries have done it. In the Pacific countries have done it. In the Middle East countries have done it. In Africa many countries have done it. In the Americas countries have done it and in the Pacific countries have done it. In every region countries have been able to develop a collective blueprint for suppressing the virus and working to save both lives and livelihoods. WHO will continue to support national action plans through our regional and national country offices and spread these lessons of success across the globe. This is a critical moment in the outbreak response. We urge every single leader to strengthen their response, put target measures in place that we know can suppress the spread, ensure that health systems and workers are protected and save lives. For us all the fastest way for us to get through this is to act together. If we all keep doing the basics - physical distancing, hand washing, mask wearing, coughing and sneezing safely away from others, avoiding crowds and keeping windows and doors open when you can't meet friends and family outside, together we will suppress this virus. 00:05:42 When we are able to successfully control it it's important governments keep going. Stay vigilant and be ready and keep investing in your national health systems including contact tracing. As well as focusing on their own national context it's important to also drive global solidarity by investing in global public goods. This week we were pleased that countries stepped up and announced US$1 billion of new funding for the ACT Accelerator, which is driving progress on diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. On Monday we announced that WHO had approved our first antigen-based rapid diagnostic test for emergency use listing and had secured supply of 120 million tests for use in low and middle- income countries. The emergency use listing procedure streamlines the process by which new or unlicensed products can be used during public health emergencies. 00:06:53 It's designed to provide information to procurement agencies and member states using an essential set of quality, safety and performance data provided by the company. Today we're pleased to announce that we have finalised approval for a second antigen-based rapid diagnostic test to be granted emergency use listing. These tests are simple to use and provide reliable results in approximately 15 to 30 minutes rather than hours or days at a lower price. We have also published today a call for expressions of interest for manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines to apply for approval for pre-qualification and/or emergency use listing. As with the new rapid tests WHO looks forward to receiving expressions of interest for COVID-19 vaccine. Then through our ACT Accelerator and COVAX facility we will ensure that any vaccines that are proven to be safe and effective are rolled out equitably across the world. I have said it before but it's worth repeating; sharing finite resources from tests to therapeutics to vaccines isn't charity. It's the smart play for all countries as it will ensure that they can protect those at most risk like front-line health workers and ultimately across the world this is the strategy to save lives, stabilise health systems and ensure a truly global economic recovery that helps us to recovery together. 00:08:40 I'm pleased to say that 168 countries have now joined COVAX and another 25 have told us they will do soon. This sends a very powerful message of solidarity across the world that we're uniting to end this pandemic for the sake of all humankind. There is something very important I want to speak about now. I want to address some of the disturbing news from the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo regarding reports of alleged sexual exploitation and abuse by people identifying themselves as working for WHO. To be very clear, we're outraged to read these reports. WHO works around the world in the toughest emergency environments and situations in the world. We come to save lives and spread hope. The betrayal of people in the communities we serve is reprehensible. We will not tolerate behaviour like this from our staff, contractors or partners. Anyone identified as being involved will be held to account and face serious consequences including immediate dismissal. 00:10:16 I have initiated an investigation of the specific allegations as well as broader protection issues in health emergency response settings. WHO has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to sexual exploitation and abuse. I take these reports very seriously and I will have more to say on this very soon. Before I turn back to Fadela I want to leave you on a message of hope. Yesterday on the International Day of Older Persons I had an inspiring conversation with Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised nearly £40 million for the United Kingdom's National Health Service with a charity walk. Just today we received a message from Janet Bank of Durban, South Africa. Janet, we know you follow our press conferences and I want to say hello. Thank you for the beautiful keyrings from Mozambique and Zimbabwe and for letting us know about the amazing story of Ida Ezekwete, who at 99 years of age was able to defeat the coronavirus. We're all in this together and across the world. We will continue to drive science, solutions and solidarity until we beat this virus together. From myself, Mike, my general, Maria - and thank you also for sending another one to my daughter and to Gabi - we all appreciate and express our gratitude for your gift, the whole way from South Africa. Thank you so much and one day we hope we will be able and will have a chance to see you in person. Thank you so much. 00:12:32 FC Thank you, Dr Tedros. We will now open the floor to questions from journalists. I remind you that you need to raise your hand, use the raise your hand function on Zoom in order to get in the queue to ask questions. I would like to make a small correction. Today unfortunately we do not have Portuguese translation so apologies to our Portuguese-speaking journalists. I would like to invite Michelle Cortez from Bloomberg News to ask the first question. Michelle, can you hear me? MI Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? FC Not very well. Hello, Michelle. Michelle, can you please unmute yourself? MI Can you hear me? 00:13:30 FC Yes, now very well. Go ahead. TAG Perfect, thank you so much. I wanted to ask you first if you can walk us a little bit through the case fatality rates that we're seeing here, the most updated numbers of course around the ages of, say, 60 and 70.
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