Dear participants,

We would like to inform you about our preparations for the WHO Barcelona course on health financing for UHC in light of the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

We are continuously assessing the situation in close collaboration with the Catalan health authorities and the WHO Regional Office in Copenhagen. Our current assessment suggests that we go ahead with our preparations for the course and we expect it to take place as scheduled. We remain on a high-level of alert and will revisit this decision in case of an outbreak in Catalonia or an official guidance by authorities or WHO regarding cancellation of events of this type.  

We would like to share with you one important factor in our decision making. There is significant cost-sharing by participants (or their employers) paying for travel, accommodation and per diem costs of attending this event. This is the case for majority of participants. As the official call for cancellation of conferences for health professionals issued by the regional health authority -as of today- does not include this type of event, we feel obliged to leave it to each individual participant to make the decision on attendance as it implies potential financial consequences for the participant or his/her employer. At this point, we have no sufficient justification to make that call ourselves. 

We would like to inform you that we are developing our preparedness and response plan for the course. This includes prevention measures and standard procedures for suspected cases of infection as per guidance from local health authorities. We will do everything at our disposal to reduce the risk of infection during the course. As course organizers, we follow the official guidance by WHO for events of this type. There is also a brief guide for meeting participants which we attach for your careful review.

If you feel uncomfortable about coming to the course or your personal/professional circumstances no longer permit your attendance, we will understand your cancellation and pay back the registration fee. Unfortunately, we do not have the means to compensate you for the potential financial losses incurred by cancelling your travel and accommodation.

As we are making a significant effort to reduce the risk of infection during the course, we would like to ask you to reconsider your participation if you or any of your contacts have recently travelled to a region/location affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. If you are unwell - even with mild symptoms -, have fever, dry cough or difficulty breathing, we ask you not to attend the course.

We would like to assure you that we are monitoring the situation closely. We will make another assessment early next week and keep you informed.  

Kind regards,

Tamás Evetovits

Head of Office