Thread by @kakape

Daily @WHO #covid19 presser happening without journalists in the room today. (@WHO is simulating teleworking, not clear whether this will continue.)

@WHO .@DrTedros starts off by thanking health care workers around the world. “You are doing a heroic job.” Emphasizes that it is not just about #covid19. “Babies are still being born”, car crashes still happen, people need treatment for cancer, diabetes, malaria, ...

@WHO @DrTedros "Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined apart from China”, says @DrTedros. More #covid19 cases now being reported every day from Europe than were reported in China at the height of the epidemic.

@WHO @DrTedros Countries need to take a comprehensive approach, says @DrTedros: "Not testing alone. Not contact tracing alone. Not quarantine alone. Not social distancing alone. Do it all!” (Being clearer here than I have heard before on what WHO wants countries to do.)

@WHO @DrTedros Mentions that @WHO has shipped PPE to 56 countries, sent close to 1,5 million diagnostic tests to 120 countries.

@WHO @DrTedros "Any country that looks at the experience of other countries with large epidemics and thinks 'that won’t happen to us' is making a deadly mistake. It can happen to anyone”, says @DrTedros.

@WHO @DrTedros Be prepared, says @DrTedros: "Every person must know the signs and symptoms of #covid19 and how to protect themselves and others...
Every health facility should be ready to cope with large numbers of patients, and ensure the safety of staff and patients."

@WHO @DrTedros .@DrTedros emphasizes the importance of testing for #covid19: "You can’t fight a virus if you don’t know where it is. Find, isolate, test and treat every case, to break the chains of #covid19 transmission. Every case we find and treat limits the expansion of the disease."

@WHO @DrTedros "Do not just let this fire burn”, says @drtedros. "Isolate the sick & quarantine their contacts.” Social distancing is also important to reduce the transmission of #SARSCoV2.

@WHO @DrTedros .@DrMikeRyan says again that there are two things that countries can and should do: Go after virus (test, trace contacts, isolate) and reduce transmission (social distancing). "Social distancing measurements are not a panacea”, he says. "They are not going to stop this pandemic."

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan Q about india which has banned travellers from everywhere. A from @DrMikeRyan: "We‘ve consistently said that travel blanket measures in their own right will do nothing to protect a country.” May in fact give false confidence and lead to later reaction to spread of #covid19.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan Interesting comparison with HIV by @DrMikeRyan. Says the idea 'If I know my status, I can protect others', applies to countries with #covid19 in some ways as well. i.e. know what’s going on within your borders.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan "We all need to stand up to stigma”, says @mvankerkhove. And @DrMikeRyan adds that that also means that no-one should be excluded. “We cannot forget migrants, we cannot forget undocumented workers, we cannot forget prisoners in prisons.”Good to hear him make this important point!

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Q what Ebola response can teach us in fight against #covid19. @DrMikeRyan says when it comes to emergency response, "speed trumps perfection”. "The problem we have at the moment is that everyone is afraid of making a mistake." But the greatest mistake is not to move, he says.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Asked what countries are doing well, @DrMikeRyan says: "no-one has done perfectly, and no-one has done all the mistakes. We will share failures in the same way we will share success.”

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove "In many countries it will get worse before it gets better”, says @mvankerkhove. Says it’s important countries aren’t punished for finding cases, because that creates disincentives. "Please look for cases, please do testing.”