The European Union (EU) today pledged €100 million towards a humanitarian fund that will assist with COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Africa. The initiative was announced today at a press briefing addressed by Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC and Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management. According to the EU, the new fund […] Continue reading ->
New COVID-19 cases climbed again globally last week for the eighth week in a row – while only 1% of the 100 million vaccine doses administered last week were in low- and middle-income countries – said senior WHO officials on Monday, citing two key barometers of pandemic policies. Meanwhile, speaking at a WHO press conference […] Continue reading ->
NEW DELHI, India – Delhi State aims to fight air pollution as a “mass movement” with public participation, according to Environment Minister Gopal Rai – but a recent conference he called with experts on the issue concluded with no firm commitments. Rai convened the two-day virtual conference with air pollution experts and clean air advocates […] Continue reading ->
A real-time COVID-19 data dashboard, celebrities and athletes sharing information about COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy, rapid response task teams and public communications campaigns have formed part of response strategies to help two major cities fight the pandemic. The Partnership for Healthy Cities – supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies— on […] Continue reading ->
Global funding to develop new drugs for some of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, such as HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, was US $3.876 billion, with the drop of US $185 million from 2018 reflecting COVID-related difficulties in data collection, according to the G-Finder Report, which tracks annual global investments. However, once participation is accounted […] Continue reading ->
As the world quickly approaches the highest weekly rate of infection recorded since the start of the pandemic over a year ago, several countries that have largely held COVID-19 at bay so far are seeing surges in infections. Papua New Guinea (PNG), a small Pacific island state that successfully shielded itself from the SARS-CoV2 virus […] Continue reading ->
NAIROBI – Kenya has developed an ambitious COVID-19 vaccination rollout plan – but it has only received enough doses for a million of its 50 million citizens, and dispensed slightly more than half of these – 565,000 – to health workers. Kenya is currently in the third wave of the pandemic and estimates that 4 […] Continue reading ->
Growing Consensus Emerging At WTO – Strengthen Supply Chain & Tech Transfer To Expand Vaccine Access
A growing consensus seems to be emerging out of this week’s high-level WTO meeting that glaring inequities in access to vaccines can be remedied by strengthening supply chains, avoiding export bans across borders, and ensuring that big pharma voluntarily transfers its vaccine technologies to poorer countries so they can produce their own vaccines. “The significant […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – The Africa CDC has expressed concerns over the disruption of the COVID-19 vaccination drive in Africa saying it was preventing many Africans who have received the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may not be able to receive the second dose 12 weeks after the first dose as recommended in the vaccination guideline. […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) Europe region sidestepped criticism of Denmark’s decision to permanently stop administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying the country’s low population numbers and low COVID-19 positivity rate of under 1% allowed for a lot of room to manoeuvre. Denmark’s low rate of infections gives the country manoeuvring room in terms of their […] Continue reading ->