Emergency Committee presents recommendations to WHO

DPI, Guyana, Friday, May 1, 2020

Three months after declaring a global pandemic, the Emergency Committee of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that COVID-19 continues to be a global health emergency.

The Emergency Committee was convened by Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus three months ago under the International Health Regulations. The committee consists of independent, international experts, representing all regions and the full range of relevant expertise.

Following a recent meeting, the committee made several recommendations to the WHO and countries around the world.

Chairman of the committee Professor Didier Houssin on Friday, highlighted that while tremendous work has been done to combat the pandemic and much has been accomplished, there are still many challenges present.

He disclosed that the committee addressed more than 20 recommendations made by the WHO and among those are several areas of importance. The first being access to food supplies.

“The increased efforts towards vulnerable countries to mitigate possible food supply disruption in some countries. Interruption of air travel in some cases is a big handicap to cargo, transportation and this is a risk which needs to be addressed,” he said.

Secondly, he recommended that strategic guidance be developed for a safe and normal return of passenger travel. However, “this is a difficult issue because it’s a question of confidence between member states, it’s a question of safe travel but it is also a very important aspect for the activities in many countries which are relying on air travel.”

Professor Houssin also noted that there need to be revised recommendations on air travel measures. He explained that analysis needs to be done with consideration on the balance between benefit and unintended consequences.

In the meantime, the WHO continues to issues guidelines and advisories as the world battles the pandemic.