In-Person Meetings Suspended at UN Headquarters Due To COVID-19

All in-person meetings at the United Nations headquarters in New York were suspended on Tuesday after five diplomats from Niger tested positive for COVID-19.

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On Monday evening, Volkan Bozkir, president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, wrote a letter to all member states, saying that the organization's medical unit had suggested the cancellation of in-person conferences on the headquarters on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, there had been 132 COVID-19 cases in the entire UN system, including 10 diplomats from relevant countries' UN permanent missions and 45 international staff.

These cases happened although precautions were implemented long ago. For example, compared to what happened before the pandemic, the number of swipes of ground pass into the UN buildings dropped to 1,400 over the last three weeks.

On March 12, the first case of COVID-19 at the UN headquarters was reported by a diplomat with the Philippines mission to the UN.

The UN chief on March 13 demanded all UN staff to work remotely from March 16 to April 12, to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at the UN headquarters in New York. The telecommuting rule has remained unchanged ever since.

The UN Security Council held an in-person meeting on July 14 at UN headquarters, the first of its kind since mid-March when COVID-19 forced the Council to convene virtually.