Women and girls have experienced the pandemic in a very different way across the world to men, according to Dr Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization.
Delivering the keynote address at the online launch of the COPE Galway Annual report, the Executive Director of the WHO's Emergencies Programme, said overall men have had higher death rates for Covid-19 compared to women.
However, he explained that the social and economic consequences of the pandemic have predominantly landed "on the shoulders of women".
Dr Ryan said during the pandemic, many women have had to provide more domestic support at home to care for children and sick relatives while not having access to full-time work. "The pandemic highlighted the unstable situation that many