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WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 4:10
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 27 AUGUST 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Tracking shot, WHO logo on door
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
"As societies open up, many are starting to see a resurgence of transmission. Much of this resurgence is occurring in clusters of cases related to gatherings of people, including at stadiums, nightclubs, places of worship and crowds. These types of gatherings can be amplifying events that can be the spark that creates a much larger fire. Every country and community must make its own decisions about how to host these events safely, based on their own level of risk."
4. Wide shot, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
6. "Earlier today I informed WHO’s Member States that I plan to establish an IHR Review Committee to advise me on whether any changes to the IHR may be necessary to ensure this powerful tool of international law is as effective as possible. The committee will be made up of independent experts, who will examine various aspects of the IHR. Although the review committee’s remit is specific to the IHR, it will communicate with the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and with the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, to exchange information and share findings."
7. Wide shot, press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
"The two colleagues who travelled to China, the purpose of their visit was to prepare the conditions for the expert group that will travel to do the study."
9. Wide shot, press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
"When the international group of experts are put together then of course naturally they will travel to Wuhan to start the study, because it is the basics of inquiries like these to start the study from where the first report came."
11. Wide shot, press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
"What we've outlined are strategies to actively find cases and so we have recommendations to test suspect cases. And in situations where it is feasible and is possible, to expand testing where necessary, to really look for the cases so that they could be isolated and that contact tracing can ensue."
13. Wide shot, press room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
"With the use of masks, the recommendation, you know, is to ensure that you use masks when you can't do physical distancing, because... I think one of the things I really want to highlight here and what I'm becoming a little bit concerned about is where I'm seeing the use of masks, we're seeing that people aren't really adhering to the physical distancing anymore. Even if you're wearing masks, you still need to try to do the physical distancing of at least one meter and even further, if you can. So, it's not just masks alone, it's not just physical distancing alone, you've heard the DG say this many, many times, it's not just hand cleaning alone, do it all."
15. Wide shot, press room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“Normally, when we talk about herd immunity, we talk about how much of the population needs to be vaccinated, you know, to have immunity to the virus, to the pathogen so that transmission can no longer take place or it's very difficult for a virus or a pathogen to transmit between people. So, that's the real, the concept of that. One of the things, if we think about herd immunity, in a natural sense of just letting a virus run, it's very dangerous because you would need a lot of people to be infected. And there are estimates of what percentage of the population needs to be infected, but that means that many people are infected, many people will need hospitalizations and many people will die."
17. Wide shot, press room
"As societies open up, many are starting to see a resurgence of transmission,” the Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Tedros said today, explaining that “much of this resurgence is occurring in clusters of cases related to gatherings of people, including at stadiums, nightclubs, places of worship and crowds.”
Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Thursday (27 Aug) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO said, “Earlier today I informed WHO’s Member States that I plan to establish an IHR Review Committee to advise me on whether any changes to the IHR may be necessary to ensure this powerful tool of international law is as effective as possible.”
The International Health Regulations (IHR) are an instrument of international law that is legally-binding on 196 countries, including the 194 WHO Member States. The IHR grew out of the response to deadly epidemics that once overran Europe.
Dr Tedros continued, ”the committee will be made up of independent experts, who will examine various aspects of the IHR. Although the review committee’s remit is specific to the IHR, it will communicate with the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and with the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, to exchange information and share findings."
Briefing on the progress of the research into origins of the coronavirous, Dr Tedros said "the two colleagues who travelled to China, the purpose of their visit was to prepare the conditions for the expert group that will travel to do the study,” and that "when the international group of experts are put together then of course naturally they will travel to Wuhan to start the study, because it is the basics of inquiries like these to start the study from where the first report came."
Also speaking at the briefing, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 Technical lead said "what we've outlined are strategies to actively find cases and so we have recommendations to test suspect cases. And in situations where it is feasible and is possible, to expand testing where necessary, to really look for the cases so that they could be isolated and that contact tracing can ensue."
Dr Van Kerkhove said "with the use of masks, the recommendation, you know, is to ensure that you use masks when you can't do physical distancing, because... I think one of the things I really want to highlight here and what I'm becoming a little bit concerned about is where I'm seeing the use of masks, we're seeing that people aren't really adhering to the physical distancing anymore. Even if you're wearing masks, you still need to try to do the physical distancing of at least one meter and even further, if you can. So, it's not just masks alone, it's not just physical distancing alone, you've heard the DG say this many, many times, it's not just hand cleaning alone, do it all."
She also said “normally, when we talk about herd immunity, we talk about how much of the population needs to be vaccinated, you know, to have immunity to the virus, to the pathogen so that transmission can no longer take place or it's very difficult for a virus or a pathogen to transmit between people. So, that's the real, the concept of that. One of the things, if we think about herd immunity, in a natural sense of just letting a virus run, it's very dangerous because you would need a lot of people to be infected. And there are estimates of what percentage of the population needs to be infected, but that means that many people are infected, many people will need hospitalizations and many people will die."
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