apply for exemption if you will being deployed to china on some poor form of humanitarian assignment but the flight crew and the diplomatic stuff they would be exempt but the flights from various foreign airlines as well as chinese airlines they've also had their number of flights into china limited israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has taken another step towards forming an emergency unity government with his main rival benny gantz the deal is being made to address the coronavirus outbreak the 2 men had a meeting overnight saturday saying they're less than a day away from a final agreement after months of failed elections and political deadlock polls of open in mali's long delayed parliamentary election despite concerns about the security and the global pandemic election was delayed several times because of violence by armed groups and kidnapped the opposition leader somali sea say on wednesday so the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera talk to al-jazeera as that next. or.

c. . code 19 has killed more than 18000 people and infected at least 400000 worldwide and counting. it all started in december last year when cases of an unusual pneumonia were reported in the chinese city of one honda. most of those affected by the unknown virus seem to have something in common they were working at a local seafood market. at the chinese health authorities were trying to investigate the causes of the illness the numbers kept growing on january 7th the world health organization announced it had identified the new virus 4 days later 41 people had been diagnosed in china and the 1st death was reported. by january 13th cases in other countries began to appear. and the death toll jumped from tens

to hundreds to thousands in the coming weeks and months governments worldwide to different measures to stop the corona virus but it was too late on march 11th the w.h.o. declared the outbreak a pandemic for many cope with 1000 has changed the world as we know it. from social gatherings to schools to airports from factories to diplomacy and the media we've all had to make unprecedented changes to stop this pandemic on how much enjoyment go week after week talk to al-jazeera travels to different locations to sit down with world leaders and decision makers but this time the restrictions put in place to ease the effects of the pandemic means we have to stay where we are so is the world doing enough to combat this global health crisis and when will the battle against coal that 19. we want to find out as the executive director of the world health organization's emergency program dr michael ryan talks to al jazeera.

dr mike ryan thank you for talking to al-jazeera dr ryan in the past few weeks i heard you say that you believe that we were in the beginning or possibly the middle of this pandemic what do you think now any predictions on where we might be in all of this and when it might be over. actually think predictions are extremely unhelpful at this moment potomac is evolving rapidly all over the world. there is no accurate way to predict. the future in the coming weeks we have to do with what we see now and we have to plan for the situation deteriorating in a number of countries in which it already has in many many countries or not in that situation many countries alone number of cases and they need to to work as hard as

they can to contain this fire so that they don't progress into the situation that other countries find themselves in now where do things stand right now when it comes to potential vaccines and treatment. vaccines are. a long way out at this point. you know peer with and honest with everyone it's going to take at least a year to bring vaccines into the fight against this white house there are at least 30 candidates actually is currently being developed are already under under under trials in fact trials have started last week in the united states and further trials will be starting in china and other countries in the coming weeks. so we have hope in that vaccine candidates are going into trials but once there's a series of steps phase $12.00 and $3.00 trials that need to be completed and then we need to be able to scale of produce and distribute that vaccine to everyone who needs it that's a massive effort it's going to require a coordinated public private partnership to do that we will get vaccines but it's going to take time but in the meantime there is

a lots we can do about this virus there is a drug called hydroxy chloroquine that's an anti-malaria drug there's been a lot of talk about it by world leaders and in the news the past couple of weeks because there was a small french study that the drug showed promise as a potential treatment for corona virus the problem now is that because that's out there there are shortages of this drug in parts of the world so there are people who need it who can't get the treatment what's the position of the w.h.o. regarding this particular drug as a potential treatment i think you said the 2 key words there you said promise and potential and certainly there are many candidates to turn a few ticks or drugs that are showing some promise or potential but we need to be exceptionally careful the studies that have been done so far small observational studies they give hints at what might be useful and as it happens we are putting. a mentor into rapidly designed large scale clinical trials across

a number of countries and we need those answers and we also need to be aware that these drugs are new. did for people with other conditions so it is not advisable for individuals or all those to be using precious drugs for which we don't have to or evidence for their use and cope with one team. and it's extremely important that we rely on the results that are going to come from trials that will tell us how safe and how effective these drugs are there are so many different ideas out there and these ideas are wonderful and doctors and nurses are trying everything they can to save patients and during the process we will come up with promising interesting . opportunities but it is very important that we ensure that these are safe effective treatments for over 1000 and that work is well underway but again we must ensure that patients who need those drugs for other conditions can still get them and doctors avoid using these drugs unless they're part of observational studies or

clinical trials dr ryan let me ask you specifically about the united states because the w.h.o. it has warned that the u.s. is at risk of becoming potentially the next epicenter of the cove in 1000 outbreak at the same time u.s. president donald trump has insisted that the country could be back to work in a matter of weeks is rhetoric like that that president trump is using irresponsible . i think the response of the u.s. is being ramping up over the last number of weeks and quite it's a huge response and all of government response with the states the private sector and the federal government no fully fully. enabled and and accelerating their response we all what i've said this before lockdowns alone will not work we have to be able to exit from transition from lock down into into solid public

health interventions like case finding contact tracing isolation and quarantine we need at the moment we're separating people from people with physical distancing and lockdown measure. to restrict the movements of individuals that will that will dampen the flames of this pandemic but it will not get rid of the virus so if you would have watched the u.s. government press briefing they were very clear they want to break the problem down state by state they want to see where they can contain the virus with very strong public health measures and they're working extremely hard to save lives in the hospital in the hospital setting everybody nobody wants to stay in a situation where populations are locked down that is it does social it does economic damage and everybody should be seeking an exit strategy from from that process but there is no way out of that until we build a public health interventions until we have the testing in place and until we're able to cope with the patients that come to our hospitals and this is something

we're working very very closely with the united states on and with many other countries but again many countries have not reached that point of having widespread community transmission in fact if we look at and in africa if we look at southeast asia if we look in the eastern mediterranean regions of our organization they represent less than 10 percent of cases around the world and less than 10 percent of all the debts many countries still have the opportunity to avoid having to going to those draconian measures and can use much more extensive public health measures we need to build this response from the community of we need to leverage and mobilize communities in the developing world so they take action they can be part of the solution and i believe many many countries in the world can avoid the worst impacts of this pandemic if they are now and can avoid the worst of the economic impacts as well well dr and let me follow up on a point that you're making specifically with regard to africa because you've said

repeatedly these past few weeks that you know because africa has been on the frontlines of dealing with epidemics and responding to epidemics that they may be in a better position then other countries believe them to be in but at the same time you've also said that good governance is the key you know how concerned are you about what may play out in africa. many african countries and countries in the eastern mediterranean north africa and the middle east. have major issues with conflict with fragility and we can't system so there's no question that the risks to those countries their people the health systems and their economies are grace but if you if you look at the africa the africa region of sub-saharan africa at this moment in time there are only about $1300.00 cases terrible need less than 30 deaths so this pandemic is still at a very early stage and those countries. africa and many other countries in the middle east have faced major epidemics and have been facing them for decades for

years you bola cholera measles yellow fever polio and have dealt with those epidemics and it does require good governance it does require in all of government approach but it also requires leveraging and unleashing the power of communities in these countries to be able to empower them to take action because in many countries the the governmental systems and the governmental acca texture is not strong enough to deliver services to everybody at the same time so we need to empower our communities in developing countries in fragile states to to to be able to take action themselves in surveillance and community based surveillance and community care and i have the united nations system stands squarely behind those countries and today the secretary general. and the director general of w.h.o. dr ted us are launching a major humanitarian appeal to support those countries dr ryan in the press

briefings you conduct you've spoken often about vulnerable communities and so i want to ask you specifically about refugees and migrants i've reported extensively in the past on refugee related and migrant related issues i've reported extensively on the plight of the rink i've been many times of those camps and cox's bazar bangladesh and i'm here. bring repeatedly these past few weeks from refugees in those areas who are terrified about the toll that covert 19 could take on their population refugees in other parts of the world also extremely worried is the international community doing enough to protect these vulnerable communities and if not what should they be doing there's no question that refugee and displaced populations particularly those living in overcrowded and under-served camps are at a particular risk for 2 reasons one they live in a confined environment they live very very close together and often in conditions that hygiene and sanitation are difficult to to maintain we we've seen how this

virus has spread on cruise ships where people are put together even in luxury situations imagine how fast that disease will spread in a camp where people are pushed together and where hygiene and sanitation is very difficult to deliver seconds reason i'm concerned and others my colleagues will have a grounding at the united nations high commission for refugees and others are very concerned is that many people living in camp conditions are. stressed they're under there many of them have had conditions themselves they're living with ill health already many of them and there are many many many vulnerable children many of them undernourished are recovering from other infectious diseases so this is a highly vulnerable population in which this disease could spread extremely quickly the. interagency standing committee of the u.n. we've come together under the leadership of mark lowcock and issued very specific

guidelines for how to prepare in these situations and i know that the u.n. country teams are working very very hard all around the world to support governments and support n.g.o.s in providing better services to those populations but. it needs to accelerate and that is what the humanitarian appeal is about today we need to excel. in our efforts to pay protect these highly vulnerable individuals and by doing that by giving more space by giving better services by improving sanitation and hygiene we will not only fight call with 1000 in these situations but offer these people the dignity the respect and the help that they deserve and what about countries where conflicts are taking place countries like syria or yemen how what risk are the populations there. very well obviously similarly at risk given their own individual vulnerability given the collapse and breakdown of health services and given the difficulty in accessing them when there is an epidemic. and

we've just spent a year and a half in northern congo in the middle of a very contentious conflict zone trying to eliminate a very serious and devastating outbreak of of people we've lost colleagues we've lost friends in that fight against ebola it is doubly difficult to deliver public health services in situations of conflict and. secretary-general and only if you cherish. announced the other day in a v w job very much supports this position that the lock down we need right now is on conflict we need to reduce conflict warring sides need to step aside and allow public health to come to the aid of civilians in these situations that are on you mention ebola can the lessons learned from fighting a bowler be applied to combating covert 19. yes i think they can obviously has only affected relatively small parts of africa but many lessons have been been

learned in those responses and the responses to cholera yellow fever last another and other diseases but to specifically in any ball of breaks may be contained by outside support or we support the containment of disease from outside the main way in which it will as contained as communities communities knowing what the disease is knowing how to stop it spread knowing how to participate in surveillance participate in public health measures and being supported by the national and international community. at the height of the able outbreak in congo in 2 provinces we were tracking and tracing and visiting 25000 contacts every day in the middle of the what was effectively a shooting war so it is possible to carry out large scale public health interventions even in the most extreme of circumstances and we need public health authorities all around the world to pick up that flag and move surveillance contact

tracing isolation and quarantine these are the central tenets of containment the measures like physical distancing measures like lockdowns movement restrictions are useful they dampen the flames but they do not get rid of the virus and this is what we need to do have a comprehensive strategy with all of these actions taken place breaking the problem down. a country like the democratic republic of congo or nigeria ethiopia very large countries you can't deal with the problem the same way in each of the different provinces the situation may be very different in each of the different problems so we need to break the problem down empower communities go after the virus the international community through the united nations system will provide every assistance to countries in doing that i know the world bank and others have released large. most of funding to support countries international action plans and 90 percent of countries around the world know have integrated national action plans for the control of coal with 19 we need to support those plans we need to fund

those plans we need to send send surge support to help countries implement and please the world can be assured of to be a jewel in the united nations absolute commitment to support countries in this doctor and i want to move for a moment to talking about the current epicenter of the pandemic italy i was in northern italy in late february reporting on the cove in 1000 outbreak many of the people that i spoke to there they were extremely worried about the toll that it would take on the economy but at the same time they did not believe that things would get as bad as they have currently gotten so i want to ask you what factors are at play there that things have gotten so bad in italy. i think there burnham are of i mean i think everyone has has been taken aback at the acceleration in initially and the death toll but similar situations are emerging in countries like spain france the u.k. many others around europe and what we're seeing is health systems and public health

systems under extreme strain but we're also seeing huge really courageous health workers our heroes people in the front like saving lives every day helping their communities and we want to shout out and call out to our colleagues in the front line. i've been in that situation it is tiring it is stressful it is frightening but it is a job these people do with great honor europe got a little caught behind the curve i think everybody around the world was assuming this would be easier to deal with than it was they made some assumptions around this disease being like influenza which it's not. and many countries have had to play a good degree of catch up but again i think the italian government are demonstrating that they're demonstrating great leadership they're fighting hard and they're saving lives but the situation is tough it's overwhelming and our thoughts and

prayers are with our colleagues and isn't it today dr eye because you mentioned specifically health workers and the challenges they're facing let's talk for a moment about that especially in spain where many have gotten sick and many have died what's being done to protect health workers in europe and other parts of the world as well well all governments around the world are scrambling to bolt train health workers provide them with a safe environment to work because it's not just about having protective equipment you have to work in an environment that's not so overcrowded that it becomes risky that you transfer affection to yourself or to others soldiers have been a real push to expand hospital beds to increase the number of intensive care. it's available to increase the number of beds that can provide critical care and you've seen the that. through through ventilation and ventilators moving and being delivered all in many countries but a major issue has been the provision of personal protective equipment to help

workers there's been a a market failure of global level there was a massive under-supply that was under production and distributing those protective equipment gowns close masks respirators to help workers around the world is is a difficult task we've been working very very hard with the pub the public and the private sector and in the pandemic supply chain network bringing together the u.n. system with many private suppliers to try and be a provider of last resort to countries who are struggling to find such equipment on their national or international markets we thank many companies and governments who are really working to supply us with with extra material our warehouses in dubai were practically empty but now are being resupplied from china which is as fantastic but again to be a joe can only in this sense be a provider of last resort we can fill gaps we can provide emergency support but

this problem has to be solved at the at the political level between countries it has to be solved by the private sector in avoiding according and gouging and and price rises and we've got to make sure that these we rationalize the use of this equipment so that frontline health workers are the ones that are getting this equipment and using it so there's a lot to do and i hope global leaders can come together and find a way to ensure that all health workers around the world get the protection that they need as they serve us and save the lives of our friends our families and our communities doctorin there's a lot of conspiracy theories out there right now especially due to the rivalry between the u.s. and china has the w.h.o. been asked to investigate claims that covert 19 was manmade. we know we've not been specifically requested to do that but what i can assure you is we've been tracking the genetics on this wire so since the very beginning we've heard scientists around the world looking at this virus we've heard all the sequences that are being posted

on public websites with our support and. there is no evidence whatsoever at the moment that this is anything other than a virus that's emerged from nature we tend to look for these explanations in situations when we've such a. horrific event but the reality is and this has always been the reality is that we human beings have behaved in a way over the last number of years we've globalized the planet and with that globalization have come some benefits in terms of freedom of movement in terms of economy but we have stressed the environment we have invaded the animal human interface we have allowed diseases to cross into humans and when those diseases do cross from animals to humans those diseases can amplify and poorly equipped health facilities they can amplify in peri urban slums they can amplify amongst stressed

refugee populations and then they can spread because we are connected globally so the problem we have right now is manmade the problem we have right now is that we have left ourselves vulnerable to emerging diseases who the diseases themselves are entirely natural but the situation in which these diseases are spreading because we human beings have created the conditions in which these diseases can spread and cause as you see tremendous damage to our health systems to our economies to our social systems are more importantly deaths amongst those we love dr ryan are you getting the sense that people are changing as a result of this and that populations around the world will be changed as a result of this that they will start to have a different outlook when it comes to all of this. i think we were all all of us are still coming to terms with this event. and everybody has something to do

everybody's got a job i've got a job every single member of every single community has a job you've got to protect others you've got to protect yourself you've got to protect your community you've got to contribute you've got to do what you can to stop this disease and when this is done we all need to sit down and see what sort of society we want to have a future one that's prepared when that's ready when that's equipped with the supplies it needs. and one that's willing to invest in the sort of defense we need as a population. are we to be defended from foreign armies are we to be defended from viruses where are we putting our investments in a society where we placing our major investments in the protection of our society or civilization on our way of life that's a conversation for later but it's a conversation that can begin now but now we have to fight dr ryan thank you for

talking to elders here. thanks for. the nature as it breaks the pollution is blamed on thousands of steel gold mines around the caucasus one boys as young as 15 and dozens of men with detailed coverage new restrictions every day across to each country fight to get corona virus from around the world the publication of weinstein's assault launched the meat to millions of women took to social media to say it's nothing to them to and it has to stop. every year 50000000 tons of electronic waste is thrown away the majority is illegally dumped in developing countries right now electronic waste is the most traded on this with retracing the tech through the

criminal organizations making big profits and asking why the west is turning a blind eye. on the trail. the hillbilly a harmless caricature or a malicious label denying the people the culture to justify the exploitation of their natural resources that dividing haka thing has been so successful that even people in the region believe the stereotype then becomes dangerous it's only a region of trash so. why not trash it what's in a name hillbilly a witness documentary on al-jazeera. the us census it only happens once every 10 years but as the coronavirus pandemic grips the world will americans be required to take part in the count during a national emergency and will donald trump's and immigration rhetoric deter some

from participating follow the u.s. census on al-jazeera the u.s. is always of interest to people the world people pay attention to will go to india now does it is very good to bring the news to the world from here. to. remaining vigilant china warns of a potential 2nd wave of infections from overseas travelers. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up united states sees war to some coronaviruses president donald trump reverses his idea of a quarantine war. on the brink of a break we will have the latest on efforts to form an emergency unity government in israel. and art imitates life as more of us stay home streaming services see

a rise in demand for head and neck related content. china's warning of a possible 2nd wave of crime of infections it's reported more than 300 new cases in the past week and most are brought in from overseas the national health commission says that's raising the chances of a new outbreak china is already preventing nearly all foreigners from entering the country talk about the u.s. now they are more than 124000 people have now tested positive or than 2100 have died the centers for disease control is urging residents of new york new jersey and connecticut to avoid non-essential travel for at least the next 14 days and half of the total number of people who have died around the world are from just 2 countries in europe italy and spain spanish army has now been asked to transport bodies.