WHO Regional Directorfor South-East Asia, saidthat ‘Effective infection prevention and control measures, including hand hygiene, are crucial to ensuring health facilities do not become hubs of COVID-19 transmission’.

WHO has delivered additional medicines to the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Solidarity Trial, a global effortto find an effective treatment for COVID-19.

As Yemen confirms its first cases of COVID-19, WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean issued a statement, stressing that collective action and commitment is the only way to mitigate the pandemic. “As long as even one case is unidentified and not properly treated, isolated and contacts traced, COVID-19 will continue to pose a significant threat to the Yemeni people and the country’s struggling health system”.

The Director General Dr. Tedros, in his regular media briefing said that, with the signing of the agreement, “We are deepening our relationship with the European Union”. He also reminded all that the European Commission will host a pledging conference on 4 May to raise funds for investment in vaccine research.

Two new Member States (Comoros and Tajikistan) reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.