United Nations ’Flights of Mercy’ in Yemen Main changes: 
a) Revision of the number of patients admitted for care and treatment abroad (from 200 to 100 based on the changes to the budget presented in the budget modification request form). 
b) Change in the route. The air transport will be made available to eligible patients and a medical travel companion – both of whom must be cleared as ‘fit-to-fly’ from Sana’a to Cairo. The stop-over in Bisha (KSA) will no longer be required as per last coordination with the concerned parties and partners involved in the preparation of the FoM. Patients and medical travel companions will be flown from Cairo, back to Sana’a starting one month after the first flight departs to Cairo.
c) Updated risk matrix (this file was uploaded in the original request of GA modification as annex and is available at the "Documents" section). 

Main changes as part of 10 March 2020
1) Change in location. According to the original project, patients would be transferred to Cairo (Egypt).  Since the start of the project, the authorization from the national authorities in Egypt required additional interaction and coordination in parallel, the Kingdom of Jordan offered to facilitate the transfer and treatment of the patients. Given the life-saving nature of this special project, and with the aim of assisting families in dire need of treatment, WHO and other partners involved in this project concurred on expanding the access to medical treatment, including Amman (Jordan) as additional location. As a result of this change:
1.1) 28 patients that are seeking care for the 12 conditions (eligibility criteria) are currently in Amman as either in-patients or outpatients. Travel companions are also seeking medical care and will be recorded as patients, once the patient tracker is completed by International SOS.
1/2) Between 50 – 70 patients are expected to travel to Cairo, subject to clearances for each case, once the list of patients is finalized and submitted to the Egyptian authorities for review. 
1.3) Based on the feasibility study conducted by International SOS for medical care in Amman, the average cost per patient is estimated at US$ 36,556 per patient, compared to US$31,500 per patient in Cairo. This  point of information confirms that the change of location does not entail cost savings. 

2) Change in project duration/No Cost Extension (NCE). The organization of each Flight of Mercy entails the concurrence of multiple stakeholders. The preparation and take -off of the next flight are likely to happen in March - April, beyond the time frame of the current OCHA-funded project. The NCE will enable WHO to secure the institutional buy-in needed for the  successful organization of the next flight that will take patients to Egypt. 

3)An update on the status of the expenditures and funds committed to pay INTERNATIONAL SOS and WFP is annexed with explanatory notes. 

Update as of  15 March 2020
WHO Yemen Country Office has reached out OCHA team sharing the following request:
In light of the last72 hours changes related to closure of the airports due to COVID19, including Jordan, we have been considering to modify the GA until 31 October 2020 instead of 30 June 2020. Given the current COVI19 situation, it will take time to reactivate the project and ensure the next flight can take place by June 2020.
In light of the above, WHO Yemen has requested  OCHA concurrence to process the NCE with end date 31 OCT 2020. It would be more efficient to go for one NCE until 31 OCT 2020 rather than processing  a next NCE in May-June, given the current operational context associated to COVID 19.