Chinese officials have rejected WHO’s proposal for a more rigorous Phase II investigation of the origins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, including renewed consideration that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, describing the new plan as “impossible” at a press conference.    “We will not accept such an origin-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, has officially exhausted all the doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine it received in March from COVAX, according to Dr Faisal Shuaib, CEO of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). Twenty-one African countries have seen COVID-19 cases rise by over 20% for at least two weeks running, […] Continue reading ->
Biodiversity sits at the heart of the simultaneous fight against both COVID-19 and the climate crisis, said experts during a Wednesday event hosted by the Society for International Development (SID).  At the event, ‘The Vaccine for Biodiversity’, panelists discussed re-focusing attention on the current health and climate crisis, and how new pandemics should and can […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) remains deadlocked on the “fundamental question” of whether a waiver on intellectual property rights of COVID-related products is the best way to address equitable vaccine access during the pandemic. This is according to a draft oral status report adopted at Tuesday’s […] Continue reading ->
In a milestone deal for Africa, Pfizer/BioNTech announced Wednesday that it would partner with the Cape Town-based pharma firm Biovac to produce over 100 million doses annually of it’s cutting edge mRNA vaccine – for distribution within the African Union.   The deal was quickly hailed as a major breakthrough on a continent that is desperately […] Continue reading ->
As an official partner of the COVAX Facility, UNICEF is responsible for procurement, logistics and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. PRITI PATNAIK spoke with Gian Gandhi, who coordinates COVAX operations for UNICEF, to get a sense of the challenges faced by the organization during the pandemic in the context of production shortages and realities at the […] Continue reading ->
KHARTOUM – A telemedicine programme is helping Sudanese medical students to both treat community members with mild COVID-19 in their homes and educate their communities about the pandemic. Many medical students, who have been sitting at home since medical schools were closed last year due to the pandemic, joined the community medical response teams (CMRT) […] Continue reading ->