The 73rd World Health Assembly is taking place this coming Monday and Tuesday, and documents related to the provisional agenda are now available here. 

The programme will cover: 

• Opening of the Health Assembly by WHA 72 President
• Election of the President and five Vice-Presidents
• Presidential address
• Statements by invited speakers
• Address by the Director-General on COVID-19 pandemic response
• Statements by Heads of delegation on COVID-19 pandemic
• Executive Board election
• Closure/suspension - WHA will consider suspending and reconvening later in the year to consider the remaining items on the agenda

For information on how you can tune into the proceedings next week, keep an eye out on the World Health Assembly portal.

TAIWAN AND THE WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY

Six Member States have proposed a supplementary item for the WHA 73 agenda entitled 'Inviting Taiwan as an observer to the World Health Assembly'.
WHO Principal Legal Officer Steven Solomon gave a video briefing on this issue, outlining how this issue relates to the WHO constitution.

More Taiwan Mythbusters:

• Did Taiwanese officials warn WHO about the novel coronavirus? Steve Solomon confirms they did not.
• How does the WHO work with Taiwan? Steve Solomon explains here.
• Why doesn't WHO invite Taiwan to the WHA? Derek Walton explains how this is a question for the 194 Member States of WHO.
• Why didn't WHO make countries do more at the beginning of the outbreak? Mike Ryan speaks about WHO’s mandate.