In this edition of the Monthly Operational Update on Health Emergencies, highlights of country-level actions and WHO support to countries include:

• New study finds that 43,000 “excess deaths” may have occurred in 2022 from the drought in Somalia 
• Addressing mental health and psychosocial needs in Ukraine during and after the war: WHO support to Ukraine in 2022
• Mongolia trains its Global Emergency Response (M-GER) Emergency Medical Team members
• Antigua and Barbuda moves forward to create its first national Emergency Medical Team (EMT)
• WHO supports Mauritius to conduct national risk profiling workshop using the Strategic Toolkit for Assessing Risks (STAR)
• WHO holds first workshop of National Public Health Agencies (NPHAs) on building essential capacities in health emergency preparedness and response
• The Eastern Mediterranean Region holds its third Scientific Conference and sixth EMARIS meeting on acute respiratory infections
• Strengthening influenza preparedness through an OpenWHO online course
• Mobile health caravans rally the western Balkans to COVID-19 vaccination, bringing health advice closer to where people are
• Assessing the quality of laboratory testing for SARS-CoV-2 through external quality assessments (EQA)
• WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) External Quality Assessment Programme 2022 for molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2
• A global analysis of COVID-19 intra-action reviews: Reflecting on, adjusting and improving emergency preparedness and response during a pandemic. Examples from the European Region
• Study captures how OpenWHO learners adapt content from online public health courses for local learning

Please click here to read the April 2023 issue of the monthly operational update on health emergencies.