World health organisation
World health, IP, trade bodies launch COVID platform
The leaders also announced a series of workshops to boost the flow of information in the push to get equitable access to COVID-19 technology.
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SA's new vaccine tech transfer hub to provide training to local manufacturers
The World Health Organisation said choosing South Africa to run the hub would help low-income countries not to rely on vaccine-producing countries to supply their needs.
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WHO warns of June-July Covax doses shortfall
Covax was set up to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, particularly to low-income countries, and has already delivered more than 80 million doses to 129 territories.
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WHO switches to Greek alphabet for virus variant names
Under the new system, the variants of concern take on the following names: the hitherto so-called British variant B.1.1.7 becomes Alpha; the B.1.351 first discovered in South Africa becomes Beta, while the Brazilian P.1 becomes Gamma.
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World No Tobacco Day: WHO says about 50% of smokers at risk of dying from COVID
The National Council Against Smoking's Sharon Nyatsanza said 21% of South Africans use tobacco products.
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Excess deaths due to pandemic much higher than reported COVID toll: WHO
So far, more than 3.4 million deaths worldwide have officially been attributed to COVID-19 since the disease first surfaced in China in late 2019.
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Don't vaccinate kids, but give doses to Covax: WHO chief
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus voiced outrage that a number of rich countries were now vaccinating children and teenagers, while poorer states had barely begun vaccinating health workers and the most vulnerable groups.
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WHO worried COVID rates could spike during Ramadan
Detected cases of COVID infection in the region rose 22% last week, while deaths rose 17%, said Ahmed al-Mandhari, the Cairo-based chief of the WHO for the eastern Mediterranean.
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WHO slams 'shocking' vaccine imbalance between rich and poor
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - a fierce critic of wealthy countries buying up vaccine supply for themselves - blasted the scarcity of doses available for poorer nations.
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WHO says not to use ivermectin on COVID-19 patients
In response to the swirl of claims around the cheap anti-parasite drug, the WHO issued guidelines saying ivermectin should only be used on COVID-19 patients in clinical trial settings.
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Covax vaccines for poor countries delayed by India: Gavi
The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is being produced under licence in India for the Covax scheme, also led by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is meant to ensure that low-income countries can access COVID-19 jabs.
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Lethal pollution high in 2020 despite lockdowns: report
The partial or complete shutdown of transport and industry for months at a time in 2020 reduced average levels of so-called PM2.5 pollution across the world, including in major cities, the IQAir quality report found.
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WHO experts to meet on AstraZeneca shot as virus cases surge
The three largest EU nations -- Germany, Italy and France -- joined others in suspending the shot on Monday, dealing a blow to the global immunisation campaign against a disease that has killed more than 2.6 million people.
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Ten key moments in the pandemic
Here are the 10 key moments since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a year ago by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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WHO warns of further COVID-19 waves
The WHO said people should not think the crisis is over because of the global vaccine rollout.
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Virus kills fewer African women than men: WHO study
Overall, around 41% of reported COVID-19 cases were women, although the figures ranged widely from 31% in Niger to more than 57% in South Africa.
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School closures still 'last resort' despite variants: WHO
The debate on shutting schools during the COVID-19 pandemic has been revived by the emergence of more contagious virus mutations.
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Vaccine rollout: Around 80% of African countries lagging behind, says WHO
The WHO said each country needed to inform the global health body what priority groups they wanted to jab first, which vaccine they preferred, how they were to execute the plan, and whether they needed assistance.
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WHO warns virus crisis not over as vaccine rollout starts
The WHO warned about what it said was an erroneous belief that the COVID-19 crisis is over with jabs on the horizon, nearly a year after the start of the pandemic that has killed 1.5 million people worldwide.
