Panama Logistics Working Group Meeting Minutes,

20 November 2020
COVID-19 Response

LOCATION Teleconference

DATE 20 November 2020

CHAIR Samuel Kealey

PARTICIPANTS CLRAH Melissa Sanchez Kirsch

ECHO Javier Espada Fernandez
GLC Gerard Genevois
PAHO Luz Mireya Candil Parra
UNHCR Carina Chung
UNHCR Joyce El Murr
UNHCR Patricia Rafaela Tejera
UNHCR Roger Llevat
UNHRD Francisco Garrido
UNHRD Francisco Quesada
UNICEF Pablo Llopis
WFP Gabriela Candano
WFP John Myraunet
WFP Mabel Dominguez
WFP Nafimert Kazmirci
WFP Nivia Quirós
WFP Salvador Peña
WFP Samuel Kealey

ACTION POINTS

• Group encouraged to invite NGO partners to Logistics Working Group Meetings

• WFP to post relevant working group updates and documents on a dedicated
Humanitarian Response webpage.
• Next meeting to be held on Friday, November 20th at 10:30am (Panama)

AGENDA
1. Hurricane Response in Central America
2. Update on Common Services
3. Other Regional Emergencies and Logistics Bottleneck
 Panama Logistics Working Group Meeting Minutes,
20 November 2020
COVID-19 Response

1. Hurricane Response in Central America

Situation Overview
• Nicaragua ( http://www.sinapred.gob.ni/): 63,000 people are given shelter at 683 locations. 4 fatalities are being
reported. 3 bridges over Rio Yaya were destroyed. Sanitary service to 53,130 families has been disrupted.
Electricity outages were reported for 114,200 households which is equal to %9.5 of the households on national
level. 86,580 houses that were without electricity from reported total are in the Caribbean Coast.
Telecommunication network in Puerto Cabezas is damaged heavily.
• Honduras (http://www.copeco.gob.hn/): Gracias a Dios, Colon, Atlántida, El Paraiso and Cortes are the most
affected regions. Total 2.9 Million people are affected, and 86,000 people are in shelters. 60,000 rations of food
and 235,000 face masks are being distributed to the victims by the local authorities. San Pedro de Sula Airport is
not expected to be operational before 15 December. Corinto and El Florido border crossing points with Guatemala
are closed because of flooding. On 14 November, National Congress approved the new legislation for easing
import regulations of humanitarian aid shipments during emergencies
• Guatemala (https://conred.gob.gt/emergencia/): Total 1.2 Million people are affected, 184,000 people were
evacuated and 17,300 people are given shelter. 2 people are unaccounted for and 2 fatalities were reported. Land
transport in the highways have been disrupted due to landslides and flooding.
• El Salvador: Currently 230 active shelters housing 880 people. This number could go up in the next few days. The
Government of El Salvador has distributed 96,000 food packages in the most remote and the most affected areas.
• Colombia: The archipelago of San Andres and Providencia (close to Nicaragua), with a population of about 70,000
people, has been directly impacted by Hurricane Iota, with severe disruption and damage. On mainland Colombia,
over 500 municipalities (out of 1,200) have been affected by heavy rain and floods, in particular on the Caribbean
Coast, and the Chocó, Antioquia, Santander, and Norte de Santander departments.
• Belize: Significant flooding has occurred throughout the country and according to the preliminary report from the
Initial Situation Assessment of the governments Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis there are as much as
50,000 to 60,000 people along flooded rivers will have been impacted. There has been damage to residential
property, utilities, agricultural land and road infrastructure.
UNHRD
• UNHRD remains prepared to fulfil requests from partners to transport cargo to affected areas. Partners
encouraged to make requests through their UNHRD focal points and can contact Francisco Quesada
(Francisco.quesada@wfp.org) with any questions.
UNHCR:
• UNHCR is responding to the emergency in Honduras. To date, UNHCR and partners delivered 881 PPEs and
hygiene kits and held information sessions on COVID19 and self-care to 70 persons in six shelters.
• 58 Refugee housing Units (RHU) have been installed to expand shelter capacity to host displaced families in San
Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. UNHCR is also immediately mobilizing NFIs worth USD866,000 to distribute in shelters
and affected communities. NFI in question are kitchen sets, blankets, jerry cans, solar lamps, soap, mosquito nets
and buckets. First shipment is loading on week 23-29 November with a transit time of 4 days.
• UNHCR is also responding to the emergency in Nicaragua with the shipment of 3x 40’ containers full of NFI:
blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans, plastic tarps, solar lamps and soap bars. Shipment arrangements are work in
progress. All NFI will be donated to SINAPRED (sistema nacional para la prevención, mitigación y atención de
desatres)
 Panama Logistics Working Group Meeting Minutes,
20 November 2020
COVID-19 Response

2. Update on WFP Common Services

• On the global level, over 90,000 cbm of cargo has been delivered by the WFP COVID common services.
• A booklet with information about common services is available here: https://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-
common-services
• 13,056 cbm of cargo have been dispatched throughout the region.
• Approximately 2500cbm of cargo is in the pipeline for the region.
• Only open flight service remaining is to and from Venezuela with the only flight programmed for the 25th of
November.
• The flights on the 9th and 23rd of December will be cancelled.
• There are now commercial flight options to and from Venezuela. The companies and their respective routes are
listed below:
COPA AIRLINES PTY - CCS
COPA AIRLINES CCS - PTY
LASER PTY - CCS
LASER CCS - PTY
TURKISH IST - CCS
TURKISH CCS - IST

3. Other Regional Emergencies and Logistics Bottlenecks

• Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Argentina and Venezuela are amongst the
countries that are open for international commercial passenger flights but there are restrictions for nationality
and residency status of the passengers.
• After 8 months of closure, Venezuelan Authorities approved re-initiation of international commercial passenger
flights to/from 8 countries including Panama, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Turkey and Iran as of 11 November.

Contacts

John Myraunet john.myraunet@wfp.org

Nivia Quiros nivia.quiros@wfp.org
Samuel Kealey samuel.kealey@wfp.org
Mabel Dominguez mabel.dominguez@wfp.org
Mert Kazmirci nafimert.kazmirci@wfp.org