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

Criminal groups across Latin America have been forced to dig deep by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Moving drugs and contraband, shaking down extortion victims and getting migrants across borders have all become far more difficult amid increased scrutiny and the lack of human activity.

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.

Documento de la Misión Permanente de la República Dominicana ante la OEA, detallando las medidas adoptadas por el Gobierno Dominicano frente a la pandemia.

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 coronavirus crisis has hurried the arrival of the “future of work”. Lockdown has seen widescale remote working, increasing automation, a global revaluation of the care economy and a more visible lack of social protection within the gig economy.

There is an opportunity to “build back better” in 5 areas: reskilling and upskilling; supporting the jobs of tomorrow; prioritizing redeployment and re-employment; re-evaluating essential work and improving the quality of jobs; and resetting education, skills and jobs systems for the post-pandemic recovery.

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.

Tras declarar el Estado de Emergencia, el Presidente de la República, Iván Duque Márquez, anunció, el 18 de marzo de 2020, un paquete de medidas económicas y sociales para enfrentar la pandemia del coronavirus (COVID-19) en Colombia, el cual se ha venido revisando, actualizando y ampliando desde entonces.

Este documento detalla las acciones adoptadas por el Gobierno Colombiano ante la pandemia.

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.

This Guide is intended to support States in enacting or strengthening domestic legislation to combat falsified medical product-related crime and, in so doing, contributing to the protection of public health. States may use this Guide as a practical tool as they draft, amend or review relevant national legislation within their constitutional and legislative framework.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented global challenges, human suffering and economic disruption. This paper identifies challenges, good practices and policy responses to new money laundering and terrorist financing threats and vulnerabilities arising from the COVID-19 crisis.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a Policy Tracker  which summarizes the key economic responses governments are taking to limit the human and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracker includes 193 economies.

El IICA elaboró un Índice que permite aproximar el nivel de vulnerabilidad alimentaria de los países de las Américas ante el Covid-19. Tras analizar los posibles canales de trasmisión y capacidad de respuesta de los países de la región a la actual pandemia del coronavirus, se construyó el índice a partir de cuatro variables

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international trade has led to a significant retraction in global commerce. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) estimates that worldwide merchandise trade will fall by up to 32% in 2020. This represents a clear loss to legitimate businesses, but also to organised crime groups (OCGs), who depend on high volumes of global trade to facilitate the illegal trafficking of goods and persons. These criminal networks manipulate the vulnerabilities of licit trade routes, exploiting opportunities to conceal their illegal activity in amongst the high volumes of products and services exchange in an increasingly globalised economy. With the emergence of COVID-19, illicit trade has also been severely affected, especially drug trafficking.

La Comisión Interamericana de Telecomunicaciones (CITEL) elaboró un banco de datos que recopila las acciones adelantadas por Estados Miembros de la OEA y el sector productivo en tecnologías de la información y comunicaciones – TICs- en respuesta a la COVID19. Dentro de esta iniciativa, se estableció una serie de recomendaciones, agrupadas en los temas más relevantes.  Adicionalmente, la CITEL ha realizado mesas redondas que han permitido conocer más a fondo las perspectivas de todos los actores, detallar el alcance de algunas de estas experiencias y poder afrontar acciones de la mejor manera. Las acciones se han recopilado y clasificado con base en las siguientes recomendaciones.