UN Geneva Press Briefing: UN Women, WFP, WHO

Very good morning and thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing today, the 8th of May. We have two agenda items for you. I have a few announcements myself. We'll start off right away with our colleague who's joining us from Beirut, Moaz Daraid, who is the UN Women Regional Director for Arab States, joining us again from Beirut, who is going to speak to the situation of women and girls in Lebanon. Afterwards, we will hear from a colleague from Rome from the World Food Programme, down a situation in Somalia. But let's go right away to Moaz. Over to you. Thank you. I'm speaking to you from Lebanon today, where I have witnessed the impact of the ongoing killing and displacement of women and girls under a fragile ceasefire. These are violations of the most basic rights and protections afforded to civilians under international law. Despite a ceasefire agreement taking effect on 17 April. Since then, 25 women have been reported killed and 109 reported injured over the past three weeks. This highlights the continued danger women and girls face as the attempt to return to their homes in southern Lebanon under the perceived safety of the ceasefire. Many of the women I have met this week have told me that their homes in villages south of the Letani River have been destroyed. One woman described her village. As completely unrecognizable because of the destruction it has suffered. Continued Israeli airstrikes, evacuation orders, bans to return to certain areas, and movement restrictions mean most displaced people still cannot go back to their homes. With more than an estimated half a million women and girls remaining displaced. From my personal perspective after listening to scores of displaced people, I am struck by how, unlike past wars and conflicts that Lebanon has suffered over the past decades, this current conflict has eroded hope among many as homes and lands in southern Lebanon have been destroyed. However, along the erosion of hope is determination among the displaced to do their utmost to return to their towns and to rebuild. Humanity and the international community should stand by these women and girls, men and boys to bring back the hope. The availability of food is decreasing. One woman described to my colleague that she has been forced to forage for wild herbs to feed her family. And based on the latest IPC projection, UN Women estimates that around an additional 144,000 women and girls are expected to face crisis level hunger, or worse, in the coming months, bringing the total to approximately 639,000. Under such dire conditions, I have also witnessed the incredible resilience in the response of women and women's organizations who are delivering humanitarian assistance, supporting livelihoods, and enhancing societal cohesion, and enhancing the potential to face crisis. Since 2nd of March, UN Women has directly supported more than 15,000 women and girls, with reach extending to more than 70,000 people across communities. We are also supporting 534 women leaders to help communities navigate the crisis, connect people to assistance, identify urgent needs, reduce tensions, and ensure that women's voices are heard in local response and in recovery efforts. The ceasefire must be fully upheld and transition to comprehensive peace in line with international humanitarian law and international law, as well as with women, peace and security commitments, ensuring women's full, equal, and meaningful participation in peace building and in recovery efforts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Dariot. And as you say, hope is what we can strive for. Indeed, in this situation, I should take this opportunity to remind you colleagues that the Secretary of Journal has repeatedly expressed his deep concern by the ongoing tensions in the region as a whole, but of course, in Lebanon, where, as you just heard, despite the ceasefire, the situation remains very volatile. He urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation and, of course, to fully respect international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians. I also take this opportunity to point you to the OCHA update, which you received yesterday, which goes into some details on what the humanitarian community is doing in the country. So thank you very much again, Mr. Dariot. We will turn to you colleagues for questions. We have one for you from AFP. Over to you, Nina. Yes, hi. Thank you very much for the briefing. I wanted to ask you about the women and girls who are expected to face crisis-level hunger, that you mentioned the number there. For starters, how does that compare to before the war? And also, what impact is there when women and girls face this compared to… Is there an overall number for the entire population? And why is it perhaps more concerning when women are facing this level of hunger? What are the knock-on effects of that? If you could explain. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you very much. Should I answer now or wait for other questions? Yes, indeed, if you could. We do one by one. Thank you. Okay. Very well. Thank you. Yes. Indeed, before the current escalation on the 2nd of March, food security across Lebanon and particularly in southern Lebanon had improved, relying on local production and also on continued support. However, with the escalation on the 2nd of March, the needs have multiplied as about 1.2 million Lebanese people have been displaced from their homes and from their lands in the south. The UN system and the international community has doubled their efforts to provide food assistance along with assistance across essential necessities and services. However, unlike the previous conflict in 2024, nowadays, the UN system faces greater financial constraints, funding constraints, and is coping with that. The food insecurity for the displaced population in Lebanon is, in terms of numbers, affects about double the number that I mentioned, about 1.2 million people who are displaced. And, of course, the UN system, including UN women, is supporting local organizations. In our case, for example, a couple of days ago, I visited in Sidon, in south Lebanon, our work with the Movement Social, which is a non-governmental organization, providing hot meals to people displaced. People displaced inside them by employing women not only to prepare such meals, but also to train and enhance their capacity for hospitality services and for preparing catering according to professional standards. So we are both in the response. So we are both in the response. So we are combining, providing direct assistance along with as much as possible building capacity, which not only provides new skills, but also supports these women and communities to bring back worthwhile activities in a dignified manner. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much, sir. Follow-up from AFP. Thank you. I'm not sure I received a response to my last question. It was, sir, why is it especially concerning when women and girls are facing hunger? Why highlight those numbers, since it's obviously half of the population who are facing crisis-level hunger? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And excuse me for not addressing that part. For a variety of reasons where the impact of the conflict on women and girls is differentiated from the rest of the population, because there is an increase in women-headed households. Often, it is harder to reach women with food assistance, as well as humanitarian assistance, which is a key element of UN women's work to ensure that gender aspects are mainstreamed across the humanitarian response. So these particular challenges pertaining to women requires a differentiated response also and engendered response. And also, women also have the agency in many dimensions to respond in meaningful and effective ways, like the activity that I mentioned with respect to a kitchen where women are employed to provide hot meals to displaced people inside them. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Did I address your question? I see a nod. Yes, I think you did. Thank you very much for that. We have a question now from Reuters. Olivia. Thank you very much. I just wanted to check the figures. UN Women is estimating that around 144,000 women and girls are expected to face crisis level hunger, or worse in the coming months, right? Is that based on the IPC report or is this separate kind of passing out by UN women just trying to work out if that was part of the report released a week ago? And if that figure is new. And just a question as well on, you know, women being particularly hard to reach. I'm just wondering, alongside that, if you're facing still kind of ongoing issues in terms of getting trucks, etc, down to the south, I know, you know, high level of destruction to infrastructure roads. One of the key bridges has seen targeting, although I believe that is now fixed. But yeah, perhaps this is a kind of a note as well, just on the logistics that you're maybe facing, the challenges you're facing to actually get stuff moving down to those hard to reach areas in the south. Thank you. Yes, with respect to your first question, as I recall, indeed, that figure is based on the recent IPC report. But my colleagues can confirm that you within the next few hours. Thank you very much, sir. And we do have WFP on the line. I'm not sure if Mr. Hollingworth can address that point. But indeed, this is something that we will be looking out for. Okay, let's see. Are there further questions? I don't know if you wanted to add anything? No? From, well, UN women? Any further questions in the room or online, for that matter? I don't see further questions at all. So on this note, then I thank you very much, Mr. DeRide, for joining us from Beirut. Stay safe. Thank you very much. Stay safe. And thank you very much for the important work you're doing there. And please, of course, feel free to join us at any point in time to give us an update on the situation there, which will hopefully be your calmer soon. Okay, colleagues. Now, as mentioned, we do have a colleague from WFP that is joining us from Rome to shift gears to the situation in Somalia. It's Matthew Hollingworth, who's joining us from WFP's Assistant Executive Director for Program Operations. Over to you, Matthew. Good morning. Good morning. I hope you can hear me. So, yes, indeed, as I've, as has been mentioned today, I want to draw attention to a crisis that is unfortunately, yet again, accelerating in Somalia, and doing so with alarming speed. I returned just this morning from a week in Somalia and across the country during that week. I saw families that are now facing the cumulative effects of repeated extreme weather shocks, conflict, economic pressure, all that are pushing hunger to dangerous levels. Somalia has endured now multiple failed rainy seasons, three consecutively, which has devastated crops, it's wiped out livestock, it's eroding livelihoods, and it's impacting millions of people. Across the country, but in particular in Puntland, I saw water resources that have completely dried up. We see everywhere markets that are strained, and for many communities, recovery from previous crises has simply not been possible yet. And as a result, now six million people, almost one in three Somalis are facing acute hunger. And among that number, two million are already in emergency conditions, IPC phase four, one step from famine. And 1.9 million children are acutely malnourished, and hundreds of thousands of them are at risk of the most severe form of malnourishment. So this isn't a distant warning. This is a crisis that is unfolding right now, and it's deepening quickly. I spoke to families that have been forced to leave everything behind them in search of food, in search of water, pasture land for their animals, and indeed assistance. And at the same time, conflict and insecurity continues to limit access to these people, i.e. the most vulnerable, and further undermine their livelihoods. And that's access for aid, but that's also access to trade and commercial goods. Just yesterday in Mogadishu, I met a family that had only arrived a week earlier from the south of the country, one amongst thousands fleeing into the city. And even as some rain begins in Somalia, and that indeed will bring hope, it's not yet bringing any real improvement for people who've lost everything already. And now Somalia's crisis is obviously being exacerbated by global shocks far beyond its borders. And the fallout from the crisis in the Middle East is driving up food prices by 70% in some areas, and fuel prices have gone up by 150%. That means that supply routes have been disrupted, making it more difficult and more expensive to deliver aid inside the country. It's all converging on communities that have already exhausted in many ways their ability to cope. But there's another defining factor driving this crisis, and sadly, that's a severe lack of funding. Right now, WFP, our partners, other UN organizations, are having to make really, really impossible choices. In Somalia, this has already led to a dramatic reduction in assistance across the board. And the number of people reached is dropping from more than 2 million that we were serving last year to just a fraction of that number today. I went to a health centre in Puntland, about an hour's drive from Garaway town. And there I met mothers with their children who've arrived in search of help, in some cases, literally walking hundreds of kilometres from communities where the livelihoods have been entirely wiped out. But arriving to find that organizations that they could once count on cannot support them. One of those mothers told me that she actually had arrived and had received two months of treatment for her three-year-old son who was facing malnourishment. But had just been told that very day that there was nothing more we could offer for the child to recover beyond this month's help. And she was trying to work out, well, what on earth would she do with her child and other children next month? And this was one of the lucky areas because this was a health care centre that was still open. In that same catchment area, there had been 12 health centres last year running. Now there's only three. And preventive action in those centres has stopped. Only treatment is provided. In practical terms, WFP is now only reaching one in 10 of people in need of food assistance. And we're at a point where a massive emergency response is urgently needed to prevent a worsening situation. Somalia faces a really severe malnutrition crisis and is one of the biggest malnutrition hotspots in the world. And in the past, GAM rates, malnourishment rates have already reached critical levels at a worse possible time. And without immediate funding, not just for the World Food Programme, but across many sectors, lifesaving assistance will continue to shrink and in our case could halt altogether in July if resources are not urgently received. And I do need to be very clear on one thing. We've seen these conditions in Somalia before. Unfortunately, in 2020, Somalia was on the brink of famine after a prolonged drought. At that time, the warning signs looked very similar to those we are seeing today. Failed rains, collapsed livelihoods, rising hunger, mass displacement. But there was a critical difference in 2022. The international community acted and acted at scale. And through rapid, coordinated response, the humanitarian community was able to reach record numbers of people with lifesaving assistance. And in that case, in that instance, really pushed famine back from the brink. Lives were saved at a massive, massive scale. And that experience proved two things. First of all, famine is always preventable. Second of all, prevention depends on timely action. Today, we're at that similar decisive moment. We know the humanitarian community has people on the ground. WFP has people on the ground. We've got systems in place. We know how to respond. We know what's at stake. We have the logistical backbone in place to really support a massive humanitarian response. And we have 1.7 million people biometrically registered that we can provide cash to almost immediately. 90% currently of food assistance in Somalia is managed by WFP teams. But as we said, only one in 10 are being supported. Without funding, bottom line, they're not going to be able to deliver. So our message today is pretty simple. Please don't wait. Act now before this emergency becomes a catastrophe. Scale up support to match the level of need. Invest not just in response, but also in resilience. So communities are not pushed to the brink again and again, but rather have the ability to withstand food shocks. But right now in Somalia, the warning signs are unmistakable. Hungers rising, coping strategies are collapsing, and a window is starting to close. And like I said, there's a lesson from 2022. When the world steps up, we can turn these things around. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks to you, Matthew, very much. You paint a bleak picture, but one that absolutely must be told. So thank you very, very much for that. We'll turn to you colleagues. We have one question for you from Reuters. Go ahead. Thank you. Just a couple of questions, if I may. You mentioned a reduction from 2 million, helping 2 million people to just a fraction of that. Just wondering what the figure is for that fraction. And also in terms of you were talking about kind of a knock on shocks caused by the situation in the Middle East. Can you just give us an outline of the latest situation you're facing in terms of therapeutic foods, therapeutic milk? I understand there's been some NGOs, but not all have been facing shortages. Perhaps you just give us some comprehensive detail on what situation is there and how that is then feeding into this kind of cocktail of crises that seem to be converging all at once in Somalia. Thank you. Thanks. Indeed, a cocktail of crises. The impact on our programs as such today is that that fraction ranges from 300,000 to half a million instead of 2 million being served. So it is a much smaller number than we would like to be supporting and that we should be supporting. When it comes to therapeutic, nutritious foods to prevent and treat malnutrition in children across the board, organizations are facing significant shortages. I mentioned in the facility I visited in Puntland, those those nurses, those doctors who are supported by World Food Programme, supported by UNICEF, are having to take horrible decisions each day, sending children away that don't meet levels that are beyond the levels that they should normally only meet to receive support and treatment. Because they have a limited supply and they know they can only work within that limited supply. So it is, you know, it's quite scary to see what's what people are having to do, what professional aid professionals are having to do right now. We know that, you know, one of the things that we faced in terms of the impact of the war in Iran, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, we face global supply chain issues. But just in Somalia itself, containers of therapeutic food, ready to use supplementary food that were due to come into Somalia, arrive 40 days late, because of the impact on global shipping, on supply chains, global supply chains. And we're not the only ones facing that crisis. While I was in Mogadishu on one of the days we were there, we were sending out three different airlifts of emergency nutritious food for different partners, Actron Contra Femme, as well as WFP and others, to get that assistance out to hard to reach areas urgently, because we had lost so much time because of the slow arrival into the country. So this is a problem everywhere. And it's, as I said, it really is making, you know, it's making it very hard for professionals on the ground who are having to take horrific choices each day on who to serve and who not to. And bottom line, there is no preventive action taking place or very little, because there's simply not the resources or the nutritious foodstuffs to provide preventive activities. It's only treatment at this stage. Thank you very much. That's very clear. Thanks. Further questions, either in the room or online for Mr. Hollingsworth? Double checking. If not, let me just answer the question that was posed previously on Lebanon to Mars, my good friend, who's sitting in my old office in Beirut, by the way, because we are all in that we share a UN facility in Beirut. 19 convoys have gone so far to the south of Lebanon, 19 interagency convoys have been negotiated to get access into the south so far during this conflict to support 84,500 individuals. And but they're a fraction of those that are approved. And typically we're only talking about less than 50 percent getting approval. So we would like to be doing many more such interagency, multi-agency and NGO convoys into hard to reach areas. But they are happening. We just need to be doing a lot more. Thank you very much, Matthew, for adding that comment. Indeed, very important. Both briefs. I think I think there are no further questions for you on Somalia or any other questions for that matter. Thank you very much. The message is very clear. And hopefully we'll get some good reporting out to try to remedy this situation. So thanks and do come back to us anytime, Matthew, for an update on the situation in Somalia or elsewhere. Thank you. Sorry, before you leave, I think we do have I'm not sure if it's for you, but we have Dina from APTN. Dina, if you could. Is this for Matthew or perhaps? Yes, it is for Matthew. Thanks a lot. Sure. Go ahead. Just to follow up about the areas where you said you talked about convoys to the south. Can you just just specify to which areas of the south, Sur, maybe Tir or other places? Can you give us a few more details, please? I think in general, it's to the Nabatia region, Marjayoun, Sur and Tibnin, Bintajabal. But I mean, I'm giving you a rough area. I can't give you the exact villages. I don't have all of the information, but it's when we are talking about district deliveries, interagency convoys into hard to reach areas. It's getting from Sur, as I said, Bintajabal area, Tibnin, Nabatia area and Marjayoun. OK, very well noted. Thank you, Matthew. OK, on that note, I think I think that does it for questions to you. And thank you again. And please, once again, please do join us at any time here at our briefings here in Geneva. Thank you. Thanks to you. OK, colleagues, just a couple of announcements from me. And then if you have any other questions, please pose. We certainly wanted to highlight a couple of statements, important statements from the Secretary General, which we shared with you this morning, in fact. One was his remarks to the plenary meeting of the General Assembly to launch the expert group report on Beyond GDP. And this was an important address, which the report itself, Beyond GDP, that's the title of the report. It offered the United Nations first global framework for moving beyond GDP, proposing a wider set of measures to guide economic policy towards well-being and environmental sustainability. So lots more information on this important report through the SGE statement. And you can access the report itself online. Another important statement that we shared with you from the Secretary General speaks to migration. It was remarks delivered in New York at the International Migration Review Forum. Among other things, the Secretary General highlights, of course, the plight of migrants around the globe. And he notes how no country can manage migration alone. And ultimately, the message is we need cooperation across borders, across governments, and across society. So those remarks are in your inbox. A couple of meetings to announce. The conference on disarmament will kick off its second part of its 2026 session this coming Monday, the 11th of May, under the presidency of the Netherlands. However, they won't actually meet in public until after the upcoming or the current review conference on the NPT. So that is throughout next week. So the following week, the conference on disarmament will resume its meetings. And of course, the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review session continues. It started this Monday, continues next week. Today, coincidentally, it is reviewing the human rights situation in Somalia, which we just heard about. That's going on now. And also, in this afternoon, rather, we have the situation of human rights in Seychelles being reviewed by the UPR Working Group. Lastly, is a press conference to announce this coming Tuesday, the 12th of May, at 9.30 in this room. We'll hear from UNEP. The United Nations Environment Programme will be launching its report, 2026 Sand in Sustainability, an Essential Resource for Nature and Development. So that will be launched here, 9.30 on the 12th of May. That's all I have for you. Yeah. Nina. Is Christian online for WHO? Christian is online. And I'm sure I was anticipating a question to Christian, who is always eager to answer you to the extent possible. Christian, over to you. But let's see your question first, and then I'm sure you have something to say. Go ahead, Nina. Yeah. Hi, Christian. I had a few questions on the Hantavirus. I know that we had a briefing yesterday with WHO, but since then it seems like there have been quite a few cases that are being talked about. Yesterday we were talking about eight cases, including five confirmed. Do you have an update on the number of cases? And also, could you say something about the contract tracing itself and how complicated that might be when you have people who have been on flights to a number of different countries? If you have any more to say on that, that would be helpful. Thank you. Thank you, Nina. Yeah. So there are a couple of updates that came in overnight and this morning, but the colleagues are putting this together into a new disease outbreak news, which we hope to receive as soon as possible. And not only late in the evening. I know you're all hoping that we do too, but it's not in our hands. It needs all diligent work and all the data. Don't forget, it's a scientific work of a scientific organization. So everything needs to be checked and counterchecked. Hence, I do not have figures for you now. Updated ones. Please stand by for this disease outbreak news. On one thing I can confirm though, because that has been in the news already, the Dutch flight attendant of the flight which had reported symptoms and was tested, has been tested negative for Hunter virus that we received this morning from the Dutch IHR focal point for the international health regulations, according to these regulations. So that's very good news. And that leads to the contract tracing that you're saying, that you asked about. So contract tracing is indeed a diligent detective work. It's following up on everybody. It's looking into seating lists of planes, of ships, maybe even more tracing somebody's steps, seeing where they would have been or might have been in close contact. Then the, normally the, the, the, the agent, the provider, the airline, the ship operator, whoever's now mentioned is the one to follow up. Or national authorities are the ones to follow up with, with tracing emails, getting into the, getting to those individuals and asking them to check for symptoms and normally asking them to report any symptoms. They feel checked with a medical facility as this, this Dutch flight attendant did. And as the, the, the gentleman in, in Zurich did. So this, this is, this is good news. This shows that the system work is working, but at the same time it's diligent work. And we of course hope to get every single one on that step. Maybe a word on the, on the infection on the virus as such, because it's connected with the flight attendant. She was in close contact apparently with that woman who then later collapsed and, and yeah, and then died in Johannesburg. Yet, she's apparently not infected with the antivirus. So that is in many directions, good news. The tracing worked, the fact that she presented herself with, with symptoms worked and the testing shows that she's not infected. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. I think Nina has a follow up. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. So good that that's, that that is good news. Do you have any indication on the other people who have, I know there was one couple who are married. So apparently they were in very close contact, but about the other cases that are confirmed of how they came in very close contact with the infected cases. And also how concerned are you about the people on St. Helena and other islands where a number of passengers have disembarked and also spent quite a bit of time? What efforts are underway to, to follow up with them? Thank you. So in the close contacts, I have not more information that what we had so far. There's to my knowledge now, the two couples, one where unfortunately both of them died, the one on ship and the other one in Johannesburg. And then the other couple with one infected is the one here in Switzerland now where the wife, well thought she was on the whole journey together. So this point has not presented any symptoms and is self isolating as, as we hear. So that shows you again, luckily, apparently the, the, the virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person. So that's good. What, sorry, what was the, your next point? Sorry for the, your concern about people on the islands where a number of people disembarked. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Nina. So the risk for the general population is low. That is and remains one of the most important messages. And with these cases, we just discussed, it shows you how close contact has to be and yet not, no, no, no forward transmission. Under any normal circumstances, a normal handling of a person should not present any danger to, to the, the individual or to the, to the people around. And definitely if you're a bit further away, the risk is, is minimal, if not zero. So for the general population on an island in, in any of the countries, we, we don't say zero, but it's an absolutely minimal risk. Okay. Well noted. Olivia, did you have a question or I think it was, okay. It's been, okay. We do have a couple more for you, Christian online. Stephanie of AP. Yes. Thank you so much. So you keep talking about how the risk is minimal and it's, but how exactly is it spread? What is it airborne? We need specifics about how people can contract this. And, but conversely, now that the flight attendant has tested negative, does that mean that, um, people should, uh, you know, relax a little bit more? There's a lot of obviously conspiracy theories going around that, um, sort of feel like we're back in the beginning of COVID and we'd love you to address that as well. Thank you. Let me start from the back of this. And as we said now multiple times, this is not COVID. I know. And we all know, um, that we have COVID fresh in our minds still. Uh, and that's the first connection everybody made. Hence the international attention to these cases. Um, Hunter viruses are around since about 30 years that we know about them. We have a couple of thousand cases each year globally. Um, if you recall the press release by the Swiss authorities, they say they have about between zero and six cases they deal with a year. So this shows you the magnitude of this virus and it's, it's a very little small magnitude. So the Hunter viruses is not new. The and this virus is also known, uh, which is, which is the one that the only one we know of that spreads, uh, human to human, but only through close contact. And again, um, close contact it's counter virus, uh, brings pulmonary infections. Lung lung disease, uh, respiratory problems. So that means you're coughing. You may be sneezing, uh, with fever, um, but especially the coughing. And that would be something if that goes directly in your counterparts, uh, face or whatever, body fluids. Um, that would be a risk factor, obviously, but I need to stress again and again, even those who have been sharing cabins, uh, don't seem to be both in the infected in some cases. So, um, the risk remains absolutely low. This is not a new COVID. I think that message is very clear. We have, uh, maybe Stephanie, I wanted to follow up to your previous question and then we'll take another one afterwards. Stephanie. Yes. Thank you. We're just, um, we're just trying to dial down and this is, it's spread via respiratory. Uh, you know, I know the, the six, six feet in the U S was the COVID thing. What is there a number of meters? Is it, you mentioned, um, respiratory, is there, uh, a bodily fluid component? We're just, people are, people are getting worried and we're just trying to help fact check and dispel any rumors of how you could or could not get it. But human to human contact and minimal risk. We understand that, but we're just looking to explain, um, what that means. Yeah. Thank you, Stephanie. And I must say my feeling is people are getting less worried now because they realize it's not spreading anything close to how COVID was spreading. Um, the contract tracing is effective because, because traces those who have been in close contact. Okay. Um, on the, uh, on the distance, I don't have centimeters or meters for you, but it's not at all the distance that we talked about in terms of COVID. It's not anything close to measles, for example, where if, if, uh, you're in your press room here, uh, if somebody on the front was coughing, uh, the first rose would be in trouble. No, not at all. Close contact means you have to be basically in your face, uh, your direct counterpart, uh, obviously partners, uh, that that's, that's logical. So to say, um, but I can't give you an exact centimeter measurement, but it has to be with, with, you know, Uh, anything you, you, you cough out. Um, if you say, if you share saliva, um, that might be something like spitting would also be a problem. But apart from that, again, let's not forget. Don't forget from, from couples who were close or are close from a flight attendant who handled the, uh, the sick woman who just shortly after died, um, and was feeling extremely unwell. Uh, we get negative test results. That should convince nearly everybody now that this is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who is really infected. Uh, and it's the risk to the general population remains absolutely low. Thanks again, Christian. Very clear. Uh, final question. Antonio. Efe. Thank you very much. Um, some reports say that the, the ship, the MV Hondius, it could arrive in the Canary Islands on Sunday. And this is one day later than initially expected. Some reports before say, say the Saturday. So do you have any information about these, uh, this, uh, possible delay? Uh, would it be, uh, caused by health related circumstances? Thank you. So I don't know exactly when the ship is about to arrive. That's definitely between the, uh, the, the, the operator and receiving the host country. Um, but what we know is that the ship had been waiting for two medical doctors, uh, from the Netherlands to arrive and board the ship so that they would go with the ship together with our WHO expert. Um, these, uh, three would accompany the ship all the way to the, to the next port. Um, if that was the reason to delay, I don't, I can't tell you, but that, that they'd have been waiting for these two medical doctors. Hence, uh, could only depart then. Thank you very much, Christian. And, uh, we'll all look out for that disease outbreak update later today. Uh, as always, thanks for joining us and for this important update in clarity. So I think that does it. No further questions on any other subjects. On that note, I wish you a good afternoon and a nice weekend. See you here on Tuesday. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, guys.