Statement – We can beat COVID-19 virus through solidarity
Statement to Diplomatic Missions located in Denmark on COVID-19 by Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
Copenhagen, 19 March 2020
Good morning your Excellencies, and thank you for joining us for this briefing today.
We should begin in sending our thoughts and best wishes to everyone – people, families, businesses – who are working together to manage and adapt to COVID-19 in their communities, and in particular those – in your countries and further afield – who are being directly impacted by the virus. I want also to take a moment to personally, and on behalf of the European Regional Office, express our thanks and gratitude to those on the frontline, our heroes – the health workforce – working day and night to serve our communities.
There are three main messages I want to convey to you today.
Firstly, we can beat the virus through solidarity:
The situation is worsening, and we need to stand together to tackle it. As of last night, there were over 207,000 cases reported in 166 countries and territories globally. Over 8,600 people have unfortunately lost their lives to COVID-19 so far. With China recording fewer and fewer cases – and today with no new domestic cases – the European Region is today the epicenter of the pandemic, representing over 40% of global cases.
COVID-19 is a test of solidarity that we simply cannot afford to fail. It is crucial that we all abide by the principles of international cooperation, collaboration and transparency, and acting on a no regrets basis.
It is important we do this together, learn from each other and harmonize our efforts. It is up to us to make this happen. The virus can be beaten thorough cooperation and harmonization of the measures each of your governments are taking.
Here, I ask your governments to seriously consider and reconsider steps taken to close borders and impose import/export restrictions. These measures are inhibiting the flow of desperately needed supplies and equipment, including personal protective equipment for our frontline health workforce. This is directly impacting the ability of health systems to prepare and respond.
Furthermore, as an Organization, I ask your governments to grant us, the World Health Organization, freedom of passage and travel to perform our duty, to serve you. Here I would like to applaud the steps taken by the Government of Montenegro to allow entry and exit of WHO staff in response to COVID-19.
Second, we should assure that health is kept at the top of the agenda:
The course of history has changed in twelve weeks, and we still do not know where this will end.
As of this morning, there were over 75,000 cases reported in the European Region, with four countries - Italy, Spain, France and Germany - accounting for over 77% of all European cases, and with a rising curve.
The lives of millions of people in our region are undergoing radical change. There is, quite simply, a new reality. The role of public health services is understood. The value of health workers is appreciated. Our health systems and services are valued like never before. When the vulnerability and frailty of our way of living is appreciated, health is top of the agenda. I ask your governments to keep it there.
Your excellencies, honorable Ambassadors and delegates, I applaud all of your governments, our Member States who are contributing your resources (human and financial), your energy and your goodwill for these global efforts. It is time to leave no one behind or on the sidelines.
I ask your governments to continue to reach out to us to assist however you can with the preparedness and response efforts.
WHO, UN Foundation and partners have launched a first-of-its-kind COVID-19 Solidary Response Fund that finances support to the most in need and vulnerable, and supports the WHO Response Plans.
Here, in the European Region, the COVID-19 response plan is benefitting from the input and advocacy of Dr David Nabarro, WHO’s Special Envoy for COVID-19 preparedness and response assigned to our Region. I am sincerely grateful for his support.
Your governments can be assured that the resources we receive, both human and financial, are being prioritized in those countries where the needs and risks are higher, and where health systems and preparedness capacities are lower. I guarantee that your contributions are being used efficiently and effectively.
Thirdly, addressing COVID-19 is an all-of-government, all of society responsibility:
On the 11th of March, the WHO Director General announced the first pandemic of coronavirus in history. This was based on the 13-fold increase in cases in the previous two weeks, and the number of affected countries across the globe.
This was our call to action for every country to take its boldest action to fight this new virus.
That action must be an all-of-society, all of government action. Effective resilience and response will take a joint effort to a shared threat.
I ask your governments to coordinate and integrate the response across all sectors, including regular and timely communication with all sectors and elements of the community.
The community’s engagement is critical.
I ask your governments to invest resources, time, and effort into risk communication and community engagement that puts listening on an equal footing with speaking. Communicating effectively with the public and engaging with communities, local partners, and other stakeholders to help prepare and protect individuals, families and the public’s health during early response to COVID-19, is essential to our collective success in this pandemic.
There are three priorities, right now, for all countries and their governments. I will focus on the first because it is so important:
We should apply rapid, robust and rigorous containment and suppression of COVID-19 outbreaks as they start: we must act quickly because the public health task and socio-economic consequences are so much harder even if we delay by a day or two. But we must maintain the focus on containment and suppression even when community transmission is well-established. Maintaining focus on essential health functions in communities is vital for the good of our people and their health services. Let it be clear – every community in every nation must trace contacts, test suspected cases, isolate patients, and guide people on the ways to protect themselves, and reduce the rate of transmission. We have seen from the South East Asian experience that if we focus on this, and do it well, we will contain the COVID-19 outbreak, and reduce the need for damaging shutdowns that cause so much misery for our people.
To prepare and be ready: every person, every health worker, every health facility must be ready to protect and care. Hospital preparedness and capacity is crucial. Every country must equip their health care centres to manage an influx of patients and protect health care workers from exposure.
Every country must consider physical distancing. We want social cohesion, but need to keep our physical distance. At the same time, we must connect with people who are anxious, while appreciating that when shutdowns come they are extremely stressful: people are anxious, families are struggling with working from home and distance schooling or – of particular concern – are anxious as they lose incomes from businesses closing and a contraction in opportunities for work. We need to be thinking ahead at all times: where might we all be in two weeks – or two months?
Many of our countries in Europe are now acting to flatten the epidemic curve and suppress COVID 19 outbreaks. As you will hear from the Western Pacific and African Region, and from Denmark shortly, different containment and mitigation strategies are being applied so that fewer new cases arise over a longer period. This increases the chances that healthcare facilities will be equipped to be able to provide safe and quality care.
We at the WHO Regional Office for Europe are working with you 24/7 to control this pandemic. We have provided expert support with 40 in country missions over the past month. We are working with partners and emergency medical teams to scale up capacity to respond.
In closing, I want to repeat my three take-home messages, requests, to your governments:
- Please connect with each other and coordinate your responses making sure that measures introduced by one nation help and do not hamper the response in another.
- Please continue supporting the response with resources and acting in solidarity, including all, and leaving no-one behind, assuring the most vulnerable are supported.
- Please encourage communities and sectors of your society to be engaged promoting an all-of-government response.
I thank you for your attention, your commitment, and all your efforts.
