The UN agency is urging every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population by the end of this year, and hopes to help ensure that 70% of the world’s population is by the middle of next year.   At a press conference on COVID-19 and vaccine equity in Africa, which is home to more than 1.2 billion people, Mr. Ghebreyesus informed that, so far, just two countries in Africa have reached the 40% target,… Read More

Hadeel Al-Zoubi is a Senior Camp Assistant working in two camps (Za’atari and Azraq) that accommodate Syrians who have fled their war-torn country. She told UN News how she has fought COVID-19 misinformation which helped her to overcome her own and others’ vaccine hesitancy. “When the coronavirus first hit, everyone feared this unknown pandemic. We did not know what to… Read More

Studies show that the global crisis has exacerbated risk factors associated with suicidal behaviours, such as job loss, trauma or abuse, mental health disorders and barriers to accessing health care.  ‘Urgent public health problem’  “Suicide is an urgent public health problem and its prevention must be a national priority,” said Renato Oliveira e Souza, head of the Mental Health Unit at the Pan American Health… Read More

It’s a year since the innovative scheme was born, in a bid to guarantee timely access to everyone, regardless of their income, status or location, to life-saving jabs, as the pandemic gripped the world.  “Yet, the global picture of access to COVID-19 vaccines is unacceptable”, said the statement released on Wednesday.  “In the critical months during which COVAX was created, signed… Read More

António Guterres was speaking at a high-level event on Mental Health Interventions for Peacebuilding in Conflict and Humanitarian settings.  “Vulnerability and mental health problems are part of our collective human experience and should be treated as seriously as physical health issues, including during a global pandemic”, he said.  Connections  For Mr. Guterres, peacebuilding, mental health and psychosocial support are deeply interconnected. He reminded that “people… Read More

“I think the Delta variant for me is the one that’s most concerning because of the increased transmissibility,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the agency’s Technical Lead for COVID-19, speaking during an online question and answer session. “It’s doubly transmissible compared to the ancestral strain, which means that it can spread to more people.” Virus evolving Dr. Van Kerkhove said… Read More

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that “many countries continue to face steep increases in cases and deaths” – despite that more than five billion vaccines have been administered globally. “But almost 75 per cent of those doses have been administered in just 10 countries”, he explained, adding that at 2 per cent, Africa has the lowest… Read More