At its 12th session held in Kish Island, Iran in March 2019, the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) decided to organise an Indian Ocean Wave Exercise (IOWave20) in 2020 and established a Task Team to plan and conduct the exercise. At its intersessional meeting held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 29th September 2019, the Task Team decided to conduct the IOWave20 exercise on 6th, 13th and 20th October 2020. Exercise IOWave20 will comprise three scenarios with simulated tsunami waves travelling across the Indian Ocean basin. Member States are invited to participate in either or all events, which will run in real time. • Scenario 1 starting at 0300 UTC on Tuesday 6th October 2020: Magnitude 9.1 earthquake south of Java off the coast of Indonesia. • Scenario 2 starting at 0400 UTC on Tuesday 13th October 2020: Magnitude 9.2 earthquake off the west coast of Andaman Islands, India. • Scenario 3 starting at 0600 UTC on Tuesday 20th October 2020: Magnitude 9.0 earthquake in the Makran Trench off the coast of Pakistan. The IOWave20 Task Team met virtually on 01 July 2020 to review the status of Covid-19 pandemic in IOTWMS Member States and to decide on the best option for the conduct of Exercise IOWave20. Noting the ongoing nature of Covid-19 pandemic in the region, the Task Team has decided to conduct Exercise IOWave 20 with the following specifics: • Conduct the exercise with limited scope and objectives (objectives 1 – 3 of section 3.2 of the exercise manual) • On the exercise dates, TSPs will issue only the first FOUR bulletins in real time in accordance with the timelines detailed in Table 3, Table 5 and Table 7 of the exercise manual. • Member States are encouraged to test communications protocols and conduct a “virtual” tabletop exercise, as a minimum, to assess organizational Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), plans and policies for tsunami warning and emergency response in the backdrop of a pandemic. Noting the interest of some Member States in engaging communities that are not impacted by the pandemic in Exercise IOWave20, the Task Team recommends that this should be at the sole discretion of the Member State considering their unique situation with respect to Covid-19. Member States should individually assess any health risks in the backdrop of the pandemic and only then decide on the appropriate level of participation in IOWave20, ensuring that there is no interference with physical distancing measures already in place. In order to ensure that the commitment of participating Member States is fully coordinated, each participating country will nominate a National Contact for Exercise IOWave20. The designated National Contact will be expected to confirm the accuracy of existing tsunami warning arrangements within your country and be responsible for coordinating input to the exercise evaluation.