Since the beginning of the pandemic, 5G phone masts have reportedly been damaged or destroyed in several European countries, including Ireland, Cyprus and Belgium. The problem has been particularly acute in the UK, where dozens of towers were targeted, and engineers abused on the job, according to media reports.

5G can carry a huge amount of data much faster than previous technology, and reliably connect an extremely large number of devices, says the ITU, allowing future users to access a wide variety of services, including industrial and professional applications.

During the current pandemic, communications technology is playing an essential role in ensuring that health services, many of which are facing unprecedented demand due to the pandemic, are able to respond function efficiently: this was underlined when a phone mast supplying voice and data traffic to a hospital built in response to the pandemic, in the major British city of Birmingham, was reportedly set alight in April.

A spokesperson for ITU, Monika Gehner, told UN News on Wednesday that the theory of a link between 5G and COVID-19 is “a hoax that has no technical basis.”

Fighting false rumours a waste of resources