Category: Development

The shipment is part of “the first wave” of syringes and safety boxes organised by the agency, which over the next few weeks, plans to dispatch more than 14.5 million single-use needles to more than 30 countries, including Côte d’Ivoire and São Tomé and Principe. Last year, we began buying 1 billion syringes for COVID-19 vaccinations. Today, the first deliveries… Read More

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking at WHO’s regular bi-weekly briefing for journalists on the latest efforts to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. He began by praising Friday’s pledge from leaders of the seven leading industrial nations, the G7, to intensify cooperation and increase their overall contribution to the international effort under the so-called ACT Accelerator programme, to around $7.5 billion. COVAX is… Read More

“Our global tests and challenges are getting bigger and more complex. Yet our responses remain fragmented and insufficient”, Secretary-General António Guterres said via videoconference.  “2021 must be the year to get back on track. Pandemic recovery is our chance”.  Global Vaccination Plan  The UN chief stressed the need for available and affordable inoculations for everyone, everywhere.  “Vaccine equity is crucial for saving lives and for… Read More

The strategy follows the initial plan last year that outlined the path countries should take to suppress transmission of the new coronavirus.  “Fully funding the SPRP is not just an investment in responding to COVID-19, it’s an investment in the global recovery and in building the architecture to prepare for, prevent and mitigate future health emergencies”, said WHO chief Tedros… Read More

Mr. Don, the UK’s leading garden writer and broadcaster, is an advocate for the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations (FAO) for the International Year of Plant Health (extended into 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), an initiative aimed at demonstrating the ways in which protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and… Read More

While the concept of One Health – where multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes – may have once seemed simple, “it is no longer”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, opening the 27th Tripartite Annual Executive Committee Meeting World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).  “We can only prevent future pandemics with an integrated One… Read More

Addressing the virtual meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the goal of providing vaccines to all as “the biggest moral test before the global community”, underlining that everyone, everywhere must be included.   Progress on #COVID19 vaccinations has been wildly uneven & unfair. The world urgently needs a Global Vaccination Plan to bring together all those with the required power,… Read More

The number of coronavirus deaths also declined in all regions by 10 per cent over the same period, with 81,000 fatalities reported in the last week, the UN health agency said in its weekly epidemiological update on Tuesday.   2.3 million victims This brings the overall number of people who died from COVID-19 to more than 2.3 million, according to… Read More

More than 10 airlines are signing agreements with the UN agency to support its ‘Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative’, which will also act as a global logistics preparedness mechanism for other humanitarian and health crises over the longer term.    “Delivery of these life-saving vaccines is a monumental and complex undertaking, considering the sheer volumes that need to be transported, the cold chain requirements,… Read More

“Last week saw the lowest number of reported weekly cases since October”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists at a regular press briefing in Geneva.   Noting a nearly 50 per cent drop this year, he stressed that “how we respond to this trend” is what matters now.  While acknowledging that there is more reason… Read More