Though new COVID-19 cases are down nearly 20% from last week in the Americas, many countries are experiencing a resurgence in infections, officials from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced at a press briefing on Wednesday.  Over 962,280 new cases were reported in the region in the past week, according to data from the […] Continue reading ->
Though the Americas is the only World Health Organization (WHO) region that is reporting a slight decline in new COVID-19 cases this week, countries in Central and South America, Canada and Mexico are still experiencing rising rates of infection.  Over 1.1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Americas over the last week, officials […] Continue reading ->
The Biden administration has been asked to clarify that sanctions against Cuba would not extend to collaborations in the development, manufacturing, distribution and sale of COVID-19 vaccines that the island nation is in the process of developing. A memorandum, sent by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) on 28 June to the White House, asks the US […] Continue reading ->
From Indonesia and the Seychelles, to Chile and China itself, there are some worrisome indications that the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID vaccines sold by the hundreds of millions to vaccine-strapped low- and middle-income countries may not be performing as well as expected – particularly against rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2.   At the same time, […] Continue reading ->
Despite the global decline in  COVID-19 cases by 12% over the last week, countries in Central and South America continue to be epicenters of pandemic, with high mortality rates and insufficient access to vaccines.  Over 1.1 million new COVID-19 cases and 31,000 deaths were reported in the Americas over the last week, officials from the […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebryesus called on leaders of the  G7 Group of the world’s most industrialized nations to share at least 100 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses with low- and middle-income countries in June and July and 250 million doses by September.  His appeal, at a WHO press conference Monday,  added to […] Continue reading ->
In preparation for the next pandemic, the COVAX global vaccine facility “needs a pot of money, where they can be early movers” in competing for, and securing, vaccine doses. That could help scenarios like the ones seen recently, in which rich countries cornered the market on the first available COVID-19 vaccines, leading to severe shortages […] Continue reading ->