WHO / COVID-19 BRIEFING

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued updated guidance on the use of masks for control of COVID-19 based on “evolving evidence and provides updated advice on who should wear a mask, when it should be worn and what it should be made of,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said. WHO

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:40
• Production Date: 5 June 2020
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: TEDROS GHEBREYESUS
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO
• Subject Topical: DISEASE CONTROL
• MAMS Id: 2547550
• Parent Id: 2547550
• Alternate Title: unifeed200605e

Description

STORY: WHO / COVID-19 BRIEFING
TRT: 02:40
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 05 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Tilt up, WHO Headquarters exterior

05 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Today WHO is publishing updated guidance on the use of masks for control of COVID-19. This guidance is based on evolving evidence and provides updated advice on who should wear a mask, when it should be worn and what it should be made of.”
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“In areas with community transmission, we advise that people aged 60 years or over, or those with underlying conditions, should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is not possible. In light of evolving evidence, WHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult.”
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7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Our updated guidance contains new information on the composition of fabric masks, based on academic research requested by WHO.”
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9. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Masks are not a replacement for physical distancing, hand hygiene and other public health measures. Masks are only of benefit as part of a comprehensive approach in the fight against COVID-19.”
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11. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Many people have said to me, well, masks are used broadly in country X or country Y and country X and country Y are doing well, that's great. But in those countries, case finding, cluster investigation, widespread testing isolation of, of cases and quarantining of contacts is also done comprehensively.”
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13. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead for COVID-19, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
“In particular where physical distancing cannot be achieved, cannot be maintained that a non-medical mask, a fabric mask, should be use, and what we have in the guidance is materials and how to actually compose that fabric mask.”
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Storyline

The World Health Organization (WHO) today (5 Jun) issued updated guidance on the use of masks for control of COVID-19 based on “evolving evidence and provides updated advice on who should wear a mask, when it should be worn and what it should be made of,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said.

Briefing reporters from Geneva, Dr. Tedros said, “in areas with community transmission, we advise that people aged 60 years or over, or those with underlying conditions, should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is not possible.” He said, “governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult.”

The WHO Director-General said the updated guidance “contains new information on the composition of fabric masks,” but stressed that “masks are not a replacement for physical distancing, hand hygiene and other public health measures” and are “only of benefit as part of a comprehensive approach in the fight against COVID-19.”

The WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director, Michael Ryan, told reporters that although masks are being “used broadly” in countries that have been successful in combatting COVID-19, “ in those countries, case finding, cluster investigation, widespread testing, isolation of cases and quarantining of contacts is also done comprehensively.”

For her part, the Technical Lead for COVID-19,Maria Van Kerkhove, said “in particular where physical distancing cannot be achieved, cannot be maintained that a non-medical mask, a fabric mask, should be use, and what we have in the guidance is materials and how to actually compose that fabric mask.”