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Position Paper

Committee: The World Food Programme (WFP)

Country: Ireland
Agenda-A: Ensuring food security to eradicate hunger and malnutrition post COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic
of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
2 (SARS-CoV-2). The outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The virus
is primarily spread between people during close contact. The pandemic has caused global social and
economic disruption and researcher are telling world may face problems like food crisis and
malnutrition. But we have to be aware about that and and proceed according to the instruction of
WFP.
The COVID-19 pandemic reached the Republic of Ireland on 29 February 2020 and within three
weeks had spread to all counties. The pandemic affected many aspects of society. On 12 March, the
government shut all schools, colleges, childcare facilities and cultural institutions, and advised
cancelling large gatherings. In 2 months after this virus spread in this country, the Department of
Health had confirmed 25,462 cases and 1,735 deaths. By mid- March, nearly 3% of the population-
140,000 people had lost their jobs due to restrictions brought in delay the virus’s spread. The
lockdown has caused a severe recession and an unprecedented rise in unemployment.
Ireland has been forwarded with some policies to safe people from this virus. According to this, the
affected patients have to stay in isolation and maintain the rules of National Public Health Emergency
Team. Ireland has introduced Delay Phase which will slow down the spread of virus and Mitigation
Strategy which will be activated where containment is no longer effective in controlling the spread
of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Everyone is advised to stay at home as much as possible. All non-
essential travel, including travel overseas, should be avoided. Our country governance is
implementing all the policies by the advice of related department. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar
said, “We’re asking people to come together as a nation by staying apart from each other. This is the
calm before the storm — before the surge.”