News Analysis India

Tag: WHO

  • WHO Says Govt Decisions In Coming Days Will Be ‘decisive’ Amid 1st Breakthrough

    World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said that the decisions made by the governments and individuals in the coming days would be ‘decisive’. Tedros said that the decisions made by the leaders and citizens in the coming days will determine both the course of the virus in the short-term and also the future possibility. This came after, the UK on Wednesday became the first country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday.

     WHO’s epidemiology expert Maria Van Kerkhove while addressing a press conference on  Friday said that almost 100 per cent of Coronavirus patients develop antibodies no matter the course of the disease. Speaking further, Kerkhove said, ‘What we understand is 90 to 100 per cent of people who are infected with the virus do develop an antibody response, whether you have mild infection or asymptomatic infection all the way to severe infection.’ The epidemiology expert informed that WHO is still learning how long COVID-19 antibody lasts, how strong it is, how it relates to immunity from another infection and how long that lasts. 

    As the world continues to battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of positive cases recorded so far is 6,56,86,172. Out of these cases, 15,14,549 have succumbed to the infection. Currently, the worst-hit country by the pandemic is the United States with 1,42,17,106 cases. 

  • Europe Was Largest Contributor To New COVID-19 Cases In Past Week: WHO

    Europe has remained the largest global contributor to the new COVID-19 cases and death in the past week, World Health Organization (WHO) said. In a weekly report, the UN health agency stressed that the European region accounted for over 44 per cent of new global cases and 49 per cent of new COVID-19 deaths in the past week. Europe as per WHO comprises of 53 nations, of which Russia (transcontinental) and Turkey are the largest by population. 

    The continent has reported 16,306,568 cases till now, despite major countries including UK, France imposing stricter measure to curb the spread of infection. According to the latest tally by John Hopkins University, a total of 372,031 people have died in Europe till now. Adding to that, the WHO report revealed that as many as 1.77 million cases and 32,684 fatalities out of the total were reported just last week.

    While the death rates continued to rise at an alarming rate, acceleration in number in the infection has slowed down over the past week, the report stated. However, despite this downward trend, “the European Region remains the largest contributor to new cases and new deaths in the past 7 days,” the report said. 

    Meanwhile, the European Commission, on November 24, revealed that it has secured a contract with American Pharma company Moderna for up to 160 million doses of its COVOD-19 vaccine. Moderna, on November 16 said that its vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 has proven to be 94.5% effective. Later, the company announced that the drug could also be stored at 36 degrees to 46 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 30 days. In addition, the vaccine also remained stable for 12 hours at room temperature. 

  • WHO Says Foreign Experts Will Visit China To Probe COVID-19 Origin

    China has reassured that it would allow international experts to get inside the country in order to investigate the animal origins of COVID-19, World Health Organization said on November 23. The UN agency, in July, had sent a team of experts to lay the groundwork for investigation. However, it has remained unclear whether international scientists would be allowed inside China to conduct epidemiological studies and identify the first human cases of COVID-19 and source of infection.  

    But Michael Ryan, WHO emergency director, speaking at a virtual press conference said that they have got reassurance from the Chinese government that their “trip to field” would be facilitated and be held as soon as possible. “We need to be able to have the international team join our Chinese colleagues… and look at the results and the outcomes of (their) studies and verify the data on the ground,” he added.

    Scientists across the world believe that the virus jumped from bats to humans in a market selling exotic meat in Wuhan. However, lately, many have opined that the COVID-19 may have emerged at a place where the infection was amplified. Many experts also believe that intermediate host animals such as pangolins might have expedited the spread.

    WHO has been trying to send a team to China since the beginning of the outbreak, however, it has been stalled owing to denial of permissions by China’s communist government. However, with the recent reassurance, experts are now hoping to find the origin of the COVID-19 virus which has killed over 1396359 people across the world with over 257671 only in America.

  • Opening of schools in India is dangerous, WHO and UNICEF report claims this

    new Delhi. S chool opening during Covid-19 The demand for school opening is also increasing in the country amid growing Corona transition. Private schools in particular are demanding the government to implement the guidelines to open schools. According to the sources, it is also reported that the government may announce the opening of the school after August 15 and schools can be opened all over the country for children from class 10th to 12th from the upcoming September. Meanwhile, if the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF report are to be believed, then it may be dangerous to open schools in India.

    According to the WHO and UNICEF, only one out of three schools in India have drinking water, in such a situation the condition of the Kovid-19 epidemic in schools in India can be dangerous. It is worth noting that repeated washing of hands in the absence of water can increase the risk of spreading the infection. Although the WHO and UNICEF report said that hand washing facilities in India have increased at a faster rate than before, but many areas of the country are still in areas where there is a shortage of soap in schools.

    According to the WHO and UNICEF reports, more than 469 million children globally had no school sanitation services in 2019. Of these children, 244 million are from Africa. The WHO and UNICEF report stated that Kovid-19 has the highest risk of health and humanitarian crises in nearly 60 countries. More than half of the countries also lack basic sanitation services.

    Regarding India in the report, it is said that most schools also lack toilet facilities for children with special needs. In such a situation, opening of schools can prove to be dangerous in the midst of growing infection of the Kovid-19 epidemic in India. The executive director of UNICEF said that we should make the education of children a priority, but the safety of children should be a priority.