Experts were closely watching the development of Japan’s COVID-19 outbreak for signs of whether the virus might escape further out of control, moving closer to the tipping point of a pandemic – the worldwide spread of a new disease. Meanwhile, a new study in The Lancet  found that in Africa, Egypt, Algeria and South Africa […] Continue reading ->
Amidst reports of an even tougher crackdown in China, including door to door visits by Wuhan public health authorities to identify people infected with the novel COVID-19 coronavirus and place them in mass quarantine facilities, WHO’s Emergencies Head Mike Ryan defended the tough government measures at a press briefing on Tuesday. “Door to door surveillance, […] Continue reading ->
A total of 59,907 cases of the new COVID-19 coronavirus have now been reported in China, according to the latest Chinese government data, posted as of midnight Thursday Beijing time. There was also a steep 48-hour increase in deaths from the disease inside China, now standing at 1,368. The second death outside of China, of […] Continue reading ->
The novel coronavirus has been officially named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19, in the first day of a global consultation with about 400 researchers and public health experts charged with designing a coherent way forward to confront the expanding epidemic. However, as the case count rose by Tuesday afternoon to 42,747 people with […] Continue reading ->
“We all have a vested interest to stop this epidemic,” says Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). As WHO on Tuesday convenes a Global Research & Innovation Forum to rapidly ramp up R&D, Cueni spoke with Health Policy Watch  about what he describes as  “the extraordinary willingness […] Continue reading ->
“Containment” remains the main objective of the battle against the coronavirus, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday, following a weekend where reports of new virus clusters in the United Kingdom and France raised fresh concerns about the virus capacity to spread rapidly beyond China’s borders. The WHO Director General spoke to […] Continue reading ->
The world is facing a “severe disruption” in stocks of personal protective equipment vital for health workers to fight the novel coronavirus  raging through China’s Hubei Province and threatening other countries worldwide, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a Friday press briefing. The Director-General spoke as cases of the new (2019-nCoV) virus continued […] Continue reading ->
After a total of 12.5 hours of consultations in five informal meetings, a bloc of countries led by Thailand won WHO Executive Board approval for a landmark decision to develop a new ten year-action plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. Representatives of Norway and the European Union joined as co-sponsors in a compromise […] Continue reading ->