Evidence of the existence of malaria in China has been found carved into bones from the Shang Yin era estimated to be 3000 years old – yet on Wednesday, the country beat this thousands-year-old scourge by getting certified “malaria-free” by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said China’s success was […] Continue reading ->
After a rocky second wave with COVID-19, Switzerland has turned a corner and is witnessing a decline in cases and deaths and the easing of restrictions, opening the country for tourism and large events. Switzerland has been praised for its response early in COVID-19 and for its economic policy throughout the pandemic. “Switzerland has navigated […] Continue reading ->
Kenya has secured $130 million in funding from the World Bank to buy COVID-19 vaccines and help boost the country’s vaccination drive, the Bank announced on Tuesday. The funding comes as the Kenyan government starts to administer the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccines to citizens, amid an upsurge of infections across 13 counties in the […] Continue reading ->
The aviation sector is unlikely to recover before 2024, as new variants, stringent quarantines and costly COVID-19 tests continue to confound international travel – but airline officials have appealed for global cooperation to simplify travel requirements. In 2020, the global aviation industry lost about $430 billion, according to Kamil Alawadi, the International Air Transport Association […] Continue reading ->
Countries as diverse as Russia, Portugal, South Africa and Sydney have imposed new lockdown regulations as they attempt to control the spread of Delta, the SARS-CoV-2 variant that is more deadly and infectious than any other variant. By last Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant had been detected in […] Continue reading ->
As World Trade Organization (WTO) members continue to negotiate on ways to streamline and adapt intellectual property rules in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we bring you this interview with the European Union’s ambassador to the WTO, João Aguiar Machado. He discusses the different strands in the EU’s overall strategy on trade and health […] Continue reading ->
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to strengthen the delivery of healthcare and move the world closer towards universal health coverage, but ethical considerations and human rights must be central to the design, development, and deployment of AI technologies, according to a new report released on Monday. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Ethics and Governance […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – Thousands of Pakistani migrant labourers fear that they might lose their jobs after the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) banned entry for Pakistanis vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines produced in China. Meanwhile, Europe’s digital ‘Green Pass’ is not available to those vaccinated by the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the […] Continue reading ->
The much-trumpeted European Union COVID Digital Green Pass, which launches 1 July and is meant to vastly ease travel to Europe for vaccinated and recovered passengers is being rolled out with one important hitch. Anyone vaccinated with an AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India would not be qualified to get the pass […] Continue reading ->
The United States may have experienced nearly 17 million additional COVID-19 cases in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH study, published this week in Science Translational Medicine, suggests that for every coronavirus infection recorded until mid-2020, nearly 4.8 more […] Continue reading ->