Friday, 14 May 2021

MEDIA ADVISORY

COVID-19 virtual press conference

When: Monday, 17 May 2021 at 1530 CEST (we will update the time if necessary)

Subject: COVID-19 and Road Safety during the pandemic 

The press conference will include special guest, Zoleka Mandela, Global Ambassador for the Child Health Initiative which calls for a safe and healthy journey to school for every child by 2030.

Background

Mobility has decreased overall due to lockdowns and people working from home. This has led to fewer accidents overall, but accidents have shown more fatal due to higher speeds. 

Globally it is estimated that 40-50% of people drive above the speed limit and that every 1 km/h increase in speed results in a 4-5% increase in fatal crashes.  

The risk of death and injury reduces considerably when speeds are lowered. 

17-23 May is UN Global Road Safety week seeking to garner policy commitments at national and local levels to deliver 30 km/h speed limits in urban areas; generate local support for low-speed measures; and build momentum towards the launch of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

Road Safety Week press release

Join the press conference via Zoom:

https://who-e.zoom.us/j/97632461835
Password: VPCwhoCPV

By phone:

Webinar ID: 976 3246 1835
Numeric Passcode for phone access: 266761763
International numbers available: https://who-e.zoom.us/u/acEv8wewTu
 

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

Please ensure you enter your name and media outlet (use name/outlet). Kindly note, only questions from media (one per journalist) are allowed. When you sign in you will be automatically put in the meeting room.

WHO reserves the right to remove any participant whose behaviour causes any disruption. The event is also broadcast on WHO social media channels and you can follow it there.

To ask a question, please click "raise hand" and this will enter you into the queue for questions. (It can be found under the tab: participants.) 

Please make sure you have a microphone connected or active on your computer. Do not ask questions via the chat as we cannot guarantee that we will can incorporate them into the q&a session. 

For translation during the VPC, choices are under "interpretation" or "language interpretation" depending on which version of Zoom you use.

Due to the volume of questions, we are no longer able to take them from phone callers and interpretation is not available via telephone.

Media contacts:
mediainquiries@who.int

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