Travellers who are fully vaccinated with vaccines authorised in the European Union (EU) “should” be allowed entry for non-essential travel – even if these vaccines were not “produced in facilities covered by the marketing authorisation in the EU”, a European Commission spokesperson for health, food safety and transport told Health Policy Watch on Wednesday. At […] 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 ->
Michel Sidibé, Special Envoy of the African Union and Minister of Health of Mali has high hopes that 15 African countries will have finally ratified the African Medicines Agency (AMA) Treaty in time for the 35th African Union (AU) Summit, scheduled for early 2022. Fifteen is the magic number of countries that must ratify the […] Continue reading ->
Government action against the threat of “superbugs” in most of the world’s leading economies gets a score of less than 50%, according to a new AMR Preparedness Index, released today by a global coalition committed to fighting current trends. Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France rated highest on a score of 1-100 in […] Continue reading ->
As the board of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance is set to meet this Wednesday and Thursday, the COVAX global vaccine facility – a cornerstone of the global health sector response on vaccine access – is coming under increased fire for its shortcomings. A bitter opinion piece by Médecins Sans Frontières, published today, has called for […] Continue reading ->
A new initiative by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization(WHO) on Tuesday aims to help countries to promote healthier school environments – including nutritious school lunches, opportunities for more physical activity, and mental health support – for 1.9 billion school-aged children and adolescents worldwide. An estimated 365 […] Continue reading ->