WHO executive board special session on Covid starts today with India in chair

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 5

With the world seeing 34,804, 348 confirmed COVID cases and 10,30,738 deaths, the WHO Director-General will chair an Executive Board special session on the coronavirus disease response on Monday.

The meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss with Member States, and seek their guidance on, the developments around the efforts to implement the strategic preparedness and response plan, as well as the actions taken to initiate the review by an independent panel.

This is the fifth special session of the WHO Executive Board and the meeting will take place on Monday and Tuesday as a hybrid meeting combining in-person and online participation, to respect safety measures.

The meeting is significant as the Director-General will submit an interim report which provides a brief summary of WHO’s activities since January 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will set out the steps taken to ensure that appropriate lessons are learned and best practices implemented as the pandemic evolves.

Update from the Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, the Chair of the International Health Regulations Review Committee and the Chair of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme will also be presented.

Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is the chair of the WHO Executive Board.

India currently has 6.6 million COVID cases with an average of over 75,000 daily cases for the past few days and over one lakh COVID deaths. US tops the global case and death charts.