governments must take action to continue improving air quality once the crisis is over and just a couple of other headlines soldiers in syria trying to retake control of the prison after captured eisel fight is staged riot the prisoners broke down walls and took over the ground floor of the jail and sarka soldiers are also hunting for 4 eisel commandos who escaped during the riots on the study a coalition that has carried out several airstrikes against the hooty targets in yemen as capital sanaa a presidential palace compound a military school and an air base were hit the coalition says the operation was aimed at destroying court legitimate military targets on saturday saudi air defense systems intercepted 2 hooty missiles targeting riyadh and the southern city of. talk to others here is next with the world health organization's mart run we are also waiting for the next news conference from the w.h.o. . frank assessments wise it's only struggling to cope with the number of

coronavirus failure to take really aggressive action with them behind her and in depth analysis of the day's global headlines inside story on al-jazeera. moveables to. cope with 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 and how my. 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 culvert 19 the one find out as the executive director of the world health organization

emergencies 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 the 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 enough in that situation many countries are low 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 and 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 wireless there are at least 30 can that it actually is currently being developed are already under under under trials in fact trials are 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. the floor of 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 others to be using precious drugs for which we don't have clear 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 covert 1900 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 may. 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 2nd 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 play 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 tony if you cherish. announced the other day in a v w job very much supports this position that the lockdown 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 ebola be applied to combating covert 19. yes i think they can obviously 'd has only affected

relatively small parts of africa but what many lessons have been been learned in those responses and the responses to cholera of a 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 and 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 that there are a number of i mean i think everyone. 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 in italy today dr eye because you mentioned specifically health workers and the challenges they're facing let's talk for a moment about that especially. we are interrupting programming thank you live to the world health organization which is holding its regular briefing on the chrono virus endemic let's listen in someone you would need to press star 9. today. we have their general dr tetris dr talk of and dr michael. as usual. we will have an audio file immediately available and transcripts a little bit later in the evening or tomorrow i will give you floor to dr tetras for often incur remarks look at that risk please.

think you think your tactic. good morning good afternoon n good evening wherever you are the 1000 pandemic is straining health systems in many countries that are appealing increasing demand on health facilities and held workers threatens to leave some health systems over the straits and an air bill to operate effectively previous outbreaks have been want to straighted that when held systems are overwhelmed does due to a vaccine preventable and treatable conditions increase dramatically even though we are in the midst of a crisis essential health services mice continue babies are still being born vaccines must still be delivered and people

still need lifesaving treatment for a range of other diseases. bluto has published guidelines to help countries balance the demands of responding directly to cope with 19 while maintaining essential health services this includes a set of time to get immediate actions to reorganize and maintain access to high quality essentially services including routine vaccination care during pregnancy and childbirth treatment for infectious in non-communicable diseases and mental health conditions blood services and more that includes ensuring an id quaid held workforce to deal with the many held needs are there than . 19 for example we are pleased by the 20000 health

workers in the u.k. who have offered to return to work and that other countries such as russian federation are involving medical students and trainees in their response to help countries mining the surge in 19 cases while maintaining essential services doubly joe has also published a detailed practical man one on how to set up and manage treatment centers for 19 the my normal cover ists 3 major interventions 1st how to set up screening and triage at health facilities using repurposed building or a tent 2nd how to set up community facilities to care for a minute patients and serve how to set up

a treatment center by repurposing hospital wards or entire hospitals or by setting up a new hospital in a tent. the money will cover the structural design infection prevention and control measures and ventilation systems this is a life saving instruction manual to deal with the surge of cases that some countries out of facing right now this facilities we also have longer term benefits for health systems once the current crisis is over in addition to having facilities for patients it's also vital that countries have sufficient supplies of diagnostics protective equipment and their medical supplies ensuring free movement of essential hell's products is vital for saving lives

and curbing the social and economic impacts of the pandemic earlier today i spoke to trade ministers from the g 20 countries about ways to address the chronic shortage of personal protective equipment and other essential medical supplies we call on countries toward quiz companies to increase production to ensure the free movement of essential its products and to ensure equatable distribution of those products based on need a specific artesian should be given to low and middle income countries in africa asia and latin america in audition w.h.o. is working intensively with several partners to massively increase access to lifesaving products including diagnostics p p medical oxygen ventilators and more we understand that many countries are

implementing measures that rest wreaked the movement of people. in implementing this measure is it's vital to respect the dignity and welfare of all people it's also important that governments keep their people informed about the intended duration of measures and to support for older people refugees and other vulnerable groups governments need to ensure the welfare of people who have lost their income and are in desperate need of food sanitation and other essential services countries should walk around in hand with communities to build trust and support resilience and mental health 2 months ago deadly published the strategy preparedness and response plan with an initial artist

of $675000000.00 is dollars to support countries to prepare for and respond to covered 19 we're very grateful to the many countries and foundations who have contributed more than $622000000.00 u.s. dollars have been received so far and the like to use this opportunity to attack king solomon center of the kingdom of saudi arabia for the money to a relief for his contribution of $10000000.00 u.s. dollars we continue to be encouraged by the signs of global solidarity to confront and overcome this common trait the commitment of g 20 countries to work together to improve the production and equitable supply of essential products shows that the world is coming together.

and coming together is the only option we have unity is the only option we have to defeat this virus yesterday i sent a tweet with a single award humility some people ask me why why i sent a single word on to it or saying humility. 19 is reminding us how vulnerable we are how connected we are and how dependent we are on each other in the eye of a storm like. scientific and public health tools are essential but so are humility and kindness we sorely doubt iti humility and assuming the best of each other we can.