Category Archives: World Health Organization

Covid live: Italy imposes mandatory testing for all EU arrivals; Poland announces further curbs as deaths rise

Posted on by

Latest updates: unvaccinated arrivals must quarantine for five days; Poland reported 660 deaths in a day, the highest since April

A member of United States secretary of state Antony Blinken’s travelling press pool has tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Kuala Lumpur and is isolating, a state department spokesperson said.

Secretary Blinken and his senior staff were also tested upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur and were all tested negative, Reuters reports.

Continue reading...

Omicron spreads to 57 countries but too early to tell if variant more infectious, WHO says

Posted on by

World Health Organization says new Covid variant spreading rapidly in South Africa, with cases doubling in the past week

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has now been reported in 57 countries and continues to spread rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

But the latest epidemiological report from WHO says given the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the US, it is still too early to draw any conclusions about the global impact of Omicron.

Continue reading...

Malaria kills 180,000 more people annually than previously thought, says WHO

Posted on by

UN agency says world must support urgent rollout of new vaccine as it reveals new figures for malaria deaths

The World Health Organization has called for a “massive, urgent” effort to get the new malaria vaccine into the arms of African children, as it warned that about 180,000 more people were dying annually from the disease than had previously been thought.

Dr Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO’s global malaria programme, said the RTS,S vaccine, recommended for widespread rollout in October, represented a historic opportunity to save tens of thousands of lives, mostly those of under-fives in sub-Saharan Africa.

Continue reading...

Omicron proves we’re not in control of Covid – only global action can stop this pandemic

Posted on by

If we keep allowing this virus to spread through unvaccinated populations, the next variant could be even more deadly

It’s almost two years since we first heard of Covid-19, and a year since the first Covid vaccines were rolled out. Yet this staggering progress is being squandered. We have drifted for months now, with richer countries, taking a very blinkered domestic focus, lulled into thinking that the worst of the pandemic was behind us. This variant reminds us all that we remain closer to the start of the pandemic than the end.

There is a lot we need to learn about the Omicron variant. Whether or not this is a pandemic-changing variant – one that really evades our vaccines and treatments – remains to be seen. Research will tell us more in the coming days and weeks, and we must watch and follow the data closely while giving the brilliant scientific teams time to get the answers. Although I am very worried about countries with limited access to vaccines, I am cautiously hopeful that our current vaccines will continue to protect us against severe sickness and death, if we are fully vaccinated.

Continue reading...

Omicron Covid variant: too soon to say illness severity – video

Posted on by

The variant first identified in South Africa has been detected in at least 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the World Health Organization's technical lead for Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, has said. The WHO has said it could take weeks to determine how infectious Omicron is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective treatments and vaccines are against it

Continue reading...

WHO says no deaths reported from Omicron yet as Covid variant spreads

Posted on by

US and Australia become latest countries to confirm locally transmitted cases

The Omicron variant has been detected in at least 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the World Health Organization has said, amid warnings that it could damage the global economic recovery.

The United States and Australia became the latest countries to confirm locally transmitted cases of the variant, as Omicron infections pushed South Africa’s total cases past 3 million.

Continue reading...

Prince Harry compares Covid vaccine inequity to HIV struggle

Posted on by

Duke of Sussex says on World Aids Day that vaccinating the world against Covid is ‘test of our moral character’

The Duke of Sussex has warned of “corporate greed and political failure” prolonging the Covid pandemic, comparing a “spectacular failure” of global vaccine equity to the struggle by millions to access HIV medicines.

In a letter read out at a World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS event on World Aids Day, Prince Harry said lessons must be learned from the HIV/Aids pandemic.

Continue reading...

Covid-19 variants may not evolve to be less dangerous, says Neil Ferguson

Posted on by

Senior UK scientist says extent of threat posed by Omicron will not be clear until end of year

People should not assume that Covid will evolve to become a milder disease, a senior scientist has warned, adding that the threat posed by the Omicron coronavirus variant will not be clear until the end of December.

Prof Neil Ferguson, head of the disease outbreak analysis and modelling group at Imperial College London, told MPs on Wednesday that while evolution would drive Covid to spread more easily the virus might not become less dangerous.

Continue reading...

Covid news: Omicron detected in US; UK reports 48,374 new cases and 171 deaths – as it happened

Posted on by

Case identified in California; UK infections on rise amid fears over Omicron variant; non-EU travellers to France must have negative Covid test regardless of vaccination status

Three people who escaped an Australian Covid quarantine facility have been arrested.

Our reporter Cait Kelly from Melbourne, Australia, has the story.

Continue reading...

Covid live: boosters may protect against Omicron, says Israel’s health minister, as US checks vaccine effectiveness

Posted on by

Nitzan Horowitz says ‘already room for optimism’ that vaccines will cover new variant; US Food & Drug Administration checking if tweaks needed

Stock markets in Asia have bounced back again as investors’ concerns about the new Omicron Covid variant eased. In Australia the ASX200 was up more than 1%, while in Japan the Nikkei was up 0.75%.

It followed a stronger showing on Monday on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.6% and the broader S&P500 was up 1.2% after some hefty losses on Friday, when news of the new strain shook confidence.

There are so many unknowns about Omicron and the market has been jumping at shadows.

After such a strong run and with elevated valuations, the market will always be susceptible to the odd shakeout on news that could bring risk.

Hong Kong’s very stringent system of boarding, quarantine and also testing requirements has successfully stopped the transmission of the three Omicron cases, that we have identified in our designated quarantine hotel, from going into the community.

Non-Hong Kong residents from these four places will not be allowed to enter Hong Kong.

The most stringent quarantine requirements will also be implemented on relevant inbound travellers from these places.

Continue reading...

Omicron variant: G7 to hold emergency Covid meeting as Japan closes its borders

Posted on by

South African president and WHO’s Africa chief urge against travel bans, saying they ‘attack global solidarity’

G7 health ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Monday about the new Omicron Covid-19 variant spreading across the world and forcing border closures, as experts race to determine the level of threat posed by the new strain.

The meeting was called by G7 chair Britain, which is among a steadily growing number of countries that have detected cases of the heavily mutated new variant.

Continue reading...

Scientists sharing Omicron data were heroic. Let’s ensure they don’t regret it | Jeffrey Barrett

Posted on by
The teams in Africa who detected the new Covid genome moved quickly. Their actions should not result in economic loss
• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

One of the positive experiences during two years of pandemic gloom has been the speed of scientific progress in understanding and treating Covid. Many effective vaccines were launched in less than a year and rapid large-scale trials found a cheap and effective drug, dexamethasone, that saved thousands of lives.

The global scientific community has also carried out “genomic surveillance” – sequencing the genome of the virus to track how it evolves and spreads at an unprecedented level: the public genome database has more than 5.5m genomes. The great value of that genomic surveillance, underpinned by a commitment to rapid and open sharing of the data by all countries in near-real time, has been seen in the last few days as we’ve learned of the Covid variant called Omicron.

Continue reading...

Covid live: PM announces new measures after two cases of Omicron variant detected in UK

Posted on by

Masks mandatory in shops and on public transport; PCR tests reintroduced for travellers to UK

The UK should cut the gap between the second dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and the booster jab from six to five months, the Labour party said on Saturday, Reuters reports.

As the new Omicron variant sparked concern around the world, Alex Norris, Labour’s junior health spokesperson, said:

This new variant is a wake-up call.

The pandemic is not over. We need to urgently bolster our defences to keep the virus at bay.

If you look at where most of the mutations are, they are similar to regions of the spike protein that have been seen with other variants so far and that tells you that despite mutations existing in other variants, the vaccines have continued to prevent very severe disease as we’ve moved through Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.

At least from a speculative point of view we have some optimism that the vaccine should still work against this variant for severe disease but really we need to wait several weeks to have that confirmed.

The processes of how one goes about developing a new vaccine are increasingly well oiled.

So if it’s needed that is something that could be moved very rapidly.

Continue reading...

WHO to assess new highly mutated Covid-19 variant as countries ramp up health checks

Posted on by

Meeting will determine if B.1.1.529 variant warrants a designation as one of ‘interest’ or of ‘concern’

The World Health Organization will meet on Friday to assess a new variant detected in South Africa that is feared to be the worst Covid-19 variant yet identified.

The meeting will determine if the B.1.1.529 variant should be designated a variant of “interest” or of “concern”. The variant, which was identified on Tuesday, initially attracted attention because it carries an “extremely high number” of mutations.

Continue reading...

Warning on tackling HIV as WHO finds rise in resistance to antiretroviral drugs

Posted on by

Nearly half of newly diagnosed infants in 10 countries have drug-resistant HIV, study finds, underlining need for new alternatives

HIV drug resistance is on the rise, according to a new report, which found that the number of people with the virus being treated with antiretrovirals had risen to 27.5 million – an annual increase of 2 million.

Four out of five countries with high rates had seen success in suppressing the virus with antiretroviral treatments, according to the World Health Organization’s HIV drug-resistance report.

Continue reading...

Covid live: France announces boosters for all adults and stricter mask rules; EU approves Pfizer jab for children aged five to 11

Posted on by

French health minister holds press conference to announce new measures; EU regulator approves vaccine for younger children

Alberto Nardelli (formerly of this parish) and John Follain have a story leading the Bloomberg site at the moment, claiming that the EU is to propose a nine-month limit on Covid vaccine validity for travel. They write:

The European Union will recommend a nine-month time limit for the validity of Covid-19 vaccinations for travel into the bloc and also propose prioritising vaccinated travellers.

The European Commission will propose that member states should continue welcoming all travelers inoculated with shots approved by the bloc, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. It also calls for countries to reopen as of 10 January to all those who have used vaccines approved by the World Health Organization.

Continue reading...

Covid deaths in Europe to top 2 million by March, says WHO

Posted on by

Dr Hans Kluge describes situation as ‘very serious’ with increasing strain on health services

Total deaths across Europe from Covid-19 are likely to exceed 2 million by March next year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, adding that the pandemic had become the number one cause of death in the region.

Reported deaths have risen to nearly 4,200 a day, double the number being recorded in September, the agency said, while cumulative reported deaths in the region, which includes the UK, have already surpassed 1.5 million.

Continue reading...

WHO: Another 500,000 people in Europe could die of Covid by March

Posted on by

WHO’s Europe director calls more public health measures to be implemented as fresh wave of infections spreads across continent

The World Health Organization has said another 500,000 people in Europe could die of Covid by March next year unless urgent action is taken.

The WHO’s Europe director, Dr Hans Kluge, said he was very worried about a fresh wave of infections that had spread across the continent and led countries to announce new restrictions.

Continue reading...

Delhi schools to close for a week due to smog

Posted on by

Levels of PM 2.5 particulates hit 20 times safe levels as agricultural fires add to city’s air pollution crisis

Authorities in Delhi have announced that schools are to close for a week as the Indian capital’s pollution control body warned of a looming health emergency due to smog.

Delhi is ranked one of the world’s most-polluted cities, with a hazardous mix of factory and vehicle emissions and smoke from agricultural fires turning its air a toxic grey every winter.

Continue reading...

Europe ‘at the epicentre’ of Covid pandemic again, warns WHO – video

Posted on by

WHO chiefs have warned Europe is ‘at the epicentre’ of the pandemic after uneven vaccine coverage and a relaxation of preventive measures across the 53 countries in the region.

Hans Kluge of the World Health Organization has said cases are again at near-record levels and 500,000 more deaths forecast by February

Continue reading...