The critical UN Climate Conference of Parties (COP26) that was scheduled to take place in Glasgow, in November, has been postponed until 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 emergency. “The COP26 UN climate change conference set to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed due to COVID-19,” stated an official message by […] Continue reading ->
A new study examining data from nearly 90% of mainland China’s confirmed COVID-19 cases found that the death rate among people older than 80 was 13.4%, as compared to only .32% for people under the age of 60. Almost one in five patients over the age of 80 were likely to require hospitalisation, as compared […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has welcomed the call by Costa Rica’s President, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, for WHO to launch an initiative that would “pool rights to technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic.” “I welcome his initiative & call for pooled rights […] Continue reading ->

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In normal times, Diego Zapata, undersecretary in the City of Medellin’s Mobility Department, worries about how to advance better public transit systems, cycling and pedestrian networks – to get more people moving around the city. But recently, he and his boss Carlos Cadena began supporting the City’s Health Department in its scramble to reduce travel […] Continue reading ->
Costa Rica’s president, Carlos Alvarado Quesada has appealed to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, to “pool rights to technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic”. The presidential letter dated Monday, 23 March, and co-signed by Minister of Health, Daniel Salas Peraza, […] Continue reading ->
US Food & Drug Administration authorization of a rapid COVID-19 test on the GeneXpert platform, one of the most widely-used TB diagnostic tools in the world, could be the first crack in the doorway to wider testing capacity in low- and middle-income countries, leading TB advocates told Health Policy Watch.  There are some 23,000 GeneXpert […] Continue reading ->
New high-throughput test technologies that can process thousands of COVID-19 samples a day are coming online. But the CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, which recently gained US Food and Drug Administration approval for a new high-volume test, asserted Thursday that “broad-based testing is simply not feasible.” Severin Schwan, Roche CEO, was speaking at a press conference […] Continue reading ->
A worldwide shortage of chemical reagents needed for COVID-19 testing has emerged, World Health Organization officials admitted on Wednesday – even as the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide surpassed the 200,000 mark. Reports of shortages come days after WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued an urgent appeal to countries […] Continue reading ->
A leading medicines access group in Europe has issued a protest against the high price of COVID-19 tests in France, amidst rising concerns that the cost of the diagnostic test may also be limiting the number of people who are being tested in Europe – the new global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. In France, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization issued an urgent call for countries worldwide to dramatically scale up COVID-19 testing, followed by stricter isolation of confirmed cases and contact tracing – saying that those steps are critical to getting the accelerating pandemic under control. But there was far less clarity from WHO about the use of travel restrictions. […] Continue reading ->