Page 55 - Coespu 2020-2

uniformed personnel (projections In terms of provision of medical re Level 3 ICU facilities are avai-
announced by Under Secretary equipment to fi eld missions, DOS lable, patients will receive in-coun-
General of the UN Department has centralized the stocking and try treatment and follow-up care.
of Operational Support, Mr. Atul management of personal-protecti- All missions have updated their
Khare, at UN media briefi ng of 29 ve equipment (PPE) and 130 re- contingency plans foreseeing the
May, 2020) between July and Au- spiratory ventilators. Other critical need for large-scale evacuations,
gust, will likely overburden airlift supplies are made available in all but in the words of Under Secretary
capacity and logistical personnel. missions to ensure that the capacity General Kha re “in a global emer-
High Stakes for Occupational of intensive care units and supplies gency, where will it be safer to go
Health and Safety is suffi cient and, not to strain the al- and who would be willing to accept
Faced with practical challenges ready stretched local resources. As several hundred if not thousand
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spanning from the disruptions to an immediate step, more than evacuees from UN fi eld Missions ?”
global supply chains, borders clo- 50,000 antibody tests have been Meanwhile, standing capacities for
sure, the grounding of commer- shipped to fi eld missions with addi- Medical Evacuations were expan-
cial fl ights and, trade restrictions, tional batches to follow. The procu- ded through additional arrange-
UN logistics experts have develo- rement of anti-gen testing kits for ments with air ambulance provi-
ped business continuity plans to diagnosis is also being considered. ders and the establishment of an
support the provision of services UN reports indicate that the exi- UN-system wide MedEvac Task
8
critical for the implementation of sting backbone of medical faci- Force . This Task Force is the pri-
peace mandates. Such plans cater lities in fi eld operations has the mary means for the UN system to
for life-support needs for 90 days capacity to respond to all but the coordinate the medical evacuation
(e.g. fuel, food, water and medi- very worst of cases requiring ad- of all personnel on the frontline.
cal supplies) in case of the brea- vanced treatment. For person- DOS is also exploring the establi-
k-down of supply systems and re- nel who may contract COVID-19 shment of a dedicated facility open
strictions affecting cargo fl ows. and require hospitalization whe- to all UN system personnel, and are
calling on member
states to express
their willingness to
host such a facility.
Stress and men-
tal-health related
disorders associa-
ted with COVID-19
have been reco-
gnised as a glo-
bal issue by the
World Health Or-
ganization (WHO)
and are high on
UN’s agenda.
Thus, the CO-
VID-19 pandemic
has increased the
general under-
standing of how
prolonged crisis
can create chal-
lenges for both
individuals’ men-
tal health as well

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