Europe is now the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic and what it is experiencing now provides lessons for the rest of the world, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials addressing a media briefing on Thursday. In addition, the lack of a systematic, multilateral approach to address this pandemic has only underscored the need for […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an emergency use listing (EUL) for India’s Covaxin, making it the eighth COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the global body. “The emergency use listing expands the availability of vaccines, the most effective medical tools we have to end the pandemic,” said Dr Mariangela Simao, WHO […] Continue reading ->
Indonesia has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax, which will be made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and sold under the brand name Covovax. “This marks the first regulatory authorization worldwide of a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine based on Phase 3 clinical data demonstrating efficacy and a favourable […] Continue reading ->
More than 5 million people have officially died from COVID-19 less than two years into the global pandemic. COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke. There have been 5,003,021 COVID-19 related deaths as of 1 November, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard. In the United States, 746,021 […] Continue reading ->
There will be no airlifting of COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries struggling to get their immunisation figures into double digits. There are also no concrete plans for wealthy countries to make good on their earlier dose promises to COVAX by giving actual delivery dates. And, there is no date for wealthy countries to phase out […] Continue reading ->
Simply by promoting cycling, government officials could address a range of problems including non-communicable diseases (NCDs), car crashes, stress and air pollution. But officials in different sectors seldom factor health into planning transport and urbanisation, said public health experts at a discussion on public health systems hosted this week by Vital Strategies. “The future of […] Continue reading ->
A “Zero Draft” report by a WHO Working Group gives cautious endorsement to advancing negotiations over a new “Pandemic Treaty” among WHO’s 194 member states. That endorsement by the Working Group of member states remains couched in highly nuanced, diplomatic language that makes it clear how big the lift may be to actually negotiate a […] Continue reading ->
Ahead of a critical G20 meeting this weekend, WHO and its partners are asking the world’s leading industrialized nations to come up with another US$ 23.4 billion over the course of the coming year to address stark shortages in COVID vaccines, tests and treatments remain dismally low in Africa and other parts of the developing […] Continue reading ->
Only five African countries are likely to reach a WHO global goal of vaccinating 40% of their populations by the end of the year, and the continent’s roll-outs may be slowed further by a global shortage of the syringes need to administer vaccines. UNICEF has reported an imminent shortfall of up to 2.2 billion syringes […] Continue reading ->
The US government has enabled Africa to get access to 50 million Moderna COVID-19 vaccines by giving the continent its place in the vaccine queue, Strive Masiyiwa, head of the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) said on Tuesday. “This is a time swap arrangement whereby the United States government basically stood aside for the next […] Continue reading ->