#COVID-19

The World Health Organization today launched a strategic preparedness and response plan to help countries prevent, detect and diagnose transmission of the coronavirus.  The agency is requesting $675 million to fund the plan for the next three months; most of money will support countries particularly at risk.

Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ press conference, held in New York today:

A medical air bridge operation in Yemen coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and local authorities began today, bringing several Yemeni patients of an initial group of 30 from Sana’a to Amman, with more flights to follow.

Meetings to consider children in armed conflict, as well as transitional justice will be among the significant Security Council events to be held in February, Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve (Belgium), its President for the month, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The United Nations is increasingly concerned about the desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa, the worst to hit Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years and Kenya’s worst infestation in 70 years.  The Secretary-General said in a tweet that the outbreak is making the dire food security situation in the region even worse.

Ghassan Salamé, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya,  expressed deep concern to the Security Council today that the truce agreed earlier this month holds only in name.  Fighting and military reinforcements on both sides raise the spectre of a full conflict engulfing the wider region.

The Government of Ethiopia, the United Nations and humanitarian partners today called for $1 billion to help 7 million of the 8.4 million people in the country identified as requiring humanitarian aid due to conflict, disease outbreaks, rain shortfalls and floods.

At least 810 people died in 2019 while crossing deserts, river and remote terrain on different migration routes across the Americas, making the year one of the deadliest on record, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported today.

Heavy rain and flooding caused by a recent tropical disturbance have affected more than 100,000 people in Madagascar and resulted in at least 31 deaths.  The Government is leading the response with support from the United Nations and humanitarian partners.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) is not declaring the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern at this time, the outbreak is a very high risk in China, as well as regionally and globally, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced.