Washington, DC — Almost 50 responders from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners arrived today in Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), along with 3600 doses of Ebola vaccine and 2000 cartridges for lab testing, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told media in an online briefing.

It is a reminder, he said, that "we continue to monitor and respond to many other health trials resume

Turning to COVID-19, Tedros announced that the Executive Group of the Solidarity Trial, which is comparing treatment options, has endorsed a recommendation to resume testing the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine.

Today's briefing outlined some of the responses in just the past week including:

A new report on suspected cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, the severe illness appearing in children thought to have been exposed to the virus;

Guidance on maintaining essential health services; controlling the spread of COVID-19 at border crossings between countries; recommendations for mass gatherings; and a protocol for surveillance of infections among health workers;

A discussion of ethical considerations for the use of digital technologies in tracking COVID-19; and

updated guidelines on the clinical management of patients with COVID-19, from screening to discharge.

At the regular press briefings, journalists pose questions to Tedros and a multi-national team of top WHO officials, such as American infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19; Irish communicable/infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programmes; and Indian paediatrician and clinician Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO's chief scientist.

In response to a question from AllAfrica about an issue on the minds of many health professionals and policy planners – whether an unchecked spread of the virus in countries around the world could lead to dangerous mutations – Van Kerkhove said that there are a large number of scientists looking at more than 40,000 full genome sequences of the virus that are being shared with researchers around the world.

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