Lockdowns, travel restrictions, resource cutbacks and other measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus are putting victims of human trafficking at risk of further exploitation, while organized crime networks could further profit from the pandemic, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 6 May 2020

In light of the loss of revenue by CI practitioners due to the effects of COVID-19, CDB has allocated USD 50,000 for the Music sub-sector and USD 50,000 for the Festivals and Carnivals sub-sector for CIIF Emergency Relief Grants. This grant is targeted at CI entrepreneurs who can demonstrate loss of income for music, festival and carnival events that have been cancelled as a result of COVID-19.

La Secretaria Ejecutiva de la CEPAL participó hoy en un seminario virtual organizado por la organización española Casa de América donde se abordó cómo afrontar la crisis provocada por la pandemia en América Latina y el Caribe.

La crisis del COVID-19 será aguda e impactará a casi todos los sectores económicos y sociales de América Latina, pero también puede generar nuevas oportunidades de cooperación global e integración regional, indican CEPAL y CAF.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, misinformation and hate speech are spreading with devastating consequences for migrants, refugees and other vulnerable groups.  

The Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne, asked countries to analyze specific trends in the COVID-19 pandemic according to their unique contexts, and warned that reducing social distancing measures “too soon could accelerate the spread of the virus and open the door for a dramatic upsurge or for spread to adjacent areas.”

In a briefing with journalists, Dr. Etienne also expressed her particular concern for Haiti in the context of the pandemic, and warned of the dangers of a large-scale outbreak in that country, which, added to the difficult situation Haiti is going through, could trigger a humanitarian crisis. “A much broader coalition to address a potential health crisis in this country is needed,” said Dr. Etienne.

While high-tech tools have enhanced modern contact tracing efforts, they are still no substitute for public health basics, said Michael J. Ryan, Chief Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, according to this article published by the World Economic Forum.

“IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine," Ryan said at a briefing Monday in Geneva.

Announcement by the World Bank on Ms. Anna Bjerde, a Swedish national, becoming the new World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia on May 1^st, 2020. In this position, Ms. Bjerde will lead the World Bank’s strategic, analytical, operational and knowledge work in the region.

Opening remarks transcript, media briefing on COVID-19 by WHO Director-General, 4 May 2020

Since  the  start  of  the  COVID-19  crisis,  demand  for  broadband  communication  services  has  soared, with some operators experiencing as much as a 60% increase in Internet traffic compared to before the crisis. •Network  operators  and  content  providers  have  to  date  successfully  maintained  services  and  efficiently utilized pre-existing capacity, and in certain cases expanded this capacity. •Additional short term measures are important to further enhance network stability and resilience, and to reduce the digital divide: for example, ensuring access for network operators and content providers to communication equipment, data centres, and mobility of technicians to customers’ homes. •Policy makers and regulators can alleviate congestion in mobile networks by releasing additional spectrum on a temporary basis, or by approving temporary commercial spectrum transactions between providers that put unused spectrum into service. •In the medium term, regulators could stimulate broadband providers to deploy more deeper into  the  networks  and  gradually  phase  out  xDSL  technologies,  where  possible,  and  alleviate  administrative burdens to ease network deployment. Keeping the Internet up and running in times of crisis

LAC country governments have reacted swiftly and preventatively to protect their citizens and contain COVID-19’s spread, which is likely to face its most difficult period in the region duringthe first weeks of May. Suchapreventative reactionis very important due to a number of particular regional challenges that LAC countries face in response to this pandemic, such as less equippedhealthcare systems and fragmented social safety nets. Yet, the region is alreadyfacingan economic crisis with less fiscal space than in 2008 to mitigate the deeper recession that will result. Focusing on the 15 countries that are a part of the Steering Group of the OECD LAC Regional Programme, this note providesan overview of the measures being enacted to mitigate the public health situation, including its social, economic, and governance dimensions

This policy brief discusses the role of testing for COVID-19 as part of any plan to lift confinement restrictions and prepare for a possible new wave of viral infections. If all confinement restrictions are lifted before a vaccine or effective treatments are developed without other measures to suppress new infections, the infection rate is expected to rebound rapidly. Crucially, quick suppression of infections requires testing more people to identify who is infected; tracking them to make sure they do not spread the disease further; and tracing with whom they have been in contact. This brief discusses how testing strategies can be used to achieve three main goals: 1)suppressing the resurgence of local outbreaks; 2)identifying people who have developed some form of immunity and can safely return to work; and 3)gaining intelligence on the evolution of the epidemic, including on when a threshold for herd immunity has been reached. The brief discusses what testscan be used for each goal, as well as practical implementation issues with testing strategies, including the opportunities and risks of using digital tools in this context.

Help is needed urgently to distribute vaccines worldwide amid dramatic shortages because of COVID-19 restrictions, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. It has warned that youngsters’ lives “are at stake” owing to the dramatic decline in commercial flights and limited availability of charters.

In normal times, the world’s airlines would be carrying nearly 2 billion international passengers this year. That’s 5.7 million a day. But with the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the planet, these are not normal times. In its latest analysis of the economic impact of novel coronavirus on global commercial aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) warns of a potential overall reduction of 872 million to just over 1.3 billion international passengers – if signs of recovery emerge in late May.

International experts have advised the World Health Organization (WHO) to work to identify the animal origins of the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic and its transmission to humans, the UN agency said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare in the cruelest way, the extraordinary precariousness and injustices of our world of work, says ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder.

The World Bank is proceeding at full speed with our COVID-19 support. Using the fast-track approach developed in April, the World Bank is currently assisting 93 countries with COVID-related health projects, with support in another 18 countries expected shortly. The broad support efforts can be viewed on this interactive map of the World Bank’s ongoing COVID-19 projects.

The COVID-19 fatality rate for people over 80-years-old, is five times the global average, the UN Secretary-General said on Friday, launching a new policy initiative to address this and many other challenges faced by the elderly, during and after the biggest public health crisis to hit the world in a century.

To avoid a global economic collapse and stave off a potential depression, Member States have taken dramatic and significant measures 2 to provide an economic safety net for citizens and businesses in distress, including through direct cash disbursements, short- and medium-term forgivable loans and deferment of payments, unemployment insurance and other measures.

In taking such emergency measures, Member States have necessarily relaxed safeguards by trading compliance, oversight and accountability for speed of response and achievement of rapid impact, thus leading to the creation of significant opportunities for corruption to thrive.