KABUL – As the Taliban blitzed through towns and villages of Afghanistan finally capturing Kabul August 15, the war-ravaged country’s fragile health system was also crumbling, leaving the sick and vulnerable in despair. Over the past week, the health ministry’s previously daily updates of coronavirus infections, vaccinations and other key updates on public health have […] Continue reading ->
The Delta variant is finding fertile ground to spread – and claim lives – around the Middle East and North Africa. The New Humanitarian, a nonprofit newsroom covering crises around the world, provides a snapshot of COVID-19 across the region. After months of relative calm, COVID-19 has again been coursing through much of the Middle […] Continue reading ->
More than 700 healthcare workers and patients have died, and more than 2000 have been injured in attacks on health facilities across 17 emergency-affected countries and fragile settings since December 2017, according to a new WHO report released on Tuesday. Countries at risk included Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Mozambique, Nigeria, occupied Palestinian territory, Myanmar and the […] Continue reading ->
A “preponderance of evidence” proves that the SARS-CoV2 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the Chinese research institute studying bat coronaviruses, concluded a report by US Congressional Republicans, released on Monday. “As we continue to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market […] Continue reading ->
This article is the second in a three-part series on COVID-19 booster vaccines, which is an evolving discussion as more evidence emerges about the performance of vaccines against variants. Despite heated debates about doling out booster jabs in healthy people who are already fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, there seems to be consensus that at least […] Continue reading ->
The war against COVID-19 has changed with the emergence of the highly transmissible and deadly Delta variant, said an internal US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) slide presentation. The document, which has not yet been released, was obtained by the Washington Post and calls for a new and more aggressive masking and vaccination […] Continue reading ->
A billion COVID-19 vaccine doses should be reallocated from high-income countries to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by September, and of another billion by mid-next year, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, told United Nations member states on Wednesday. The pair, who co-chaired the […] Continue reading ->
As the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change exacerbate global food insecurity, African countries are committed to giving more support to small farmers – particularly women. This emerged at the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit in Italy, which opened on Monday as a precursor to a formal UN summit planned for September. Rwandan President Paul Kagame […] Continue reading ->
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 ->
An estimated 1.5 million children worldwide have lost a parent, grandparent, or caregiver due to COVID-19, according to a new study published in The Lancet on Tuesday. The study, which was conducted by international researchers, including scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the University of […] Continue reading ->