Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Health officials from the UN and the European Union will meet this week on the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after several more countries suspended its use, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists that WHO’s …
Read More »WHO investigates reports of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine blood clots
Geneva, Switzerland | THE INDEPENDENT | Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the Geneva-based UN health agency “systematically reviews safety signals, and is carefully assessing the current reports on the AstraZeneca vaccine.” The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has been suspended …
Read More »WHO warns of “mass trauma” caused by COVID-19 pandemic
Geneva, Switzerland | THE INDEPENDENT | World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more “mass trauma” than World War II and warned of its lasting consequences. “The world has experienced mass trauma because World War Two affected many, many lives,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom …
Read More »Every 1 in 4 people will be losing their hearing by 2050 -WHO
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide or 1 in 4 people will be living with some degree of hearing loss in the next 30 years, warns the World Health Organization -WHO’s first World Report on Hearing, released on Tuesday. At least 700 million of these people …
Read More »COVAX signs world’s first no-fault compensation programme for COVID-19 vaccines
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Health Organization (WHO) and global insurance company Chubb Limited have signed an agreement for the administration of a no-fault compensation programme for countries that are accessing the COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility. The compensation programme which is the first globally to cushion …
Read More »Merkel calls for strengthening multilateralism at Munich Security Conference
BERLIN, GERMANY | THE INDEPENDENT | German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the special virtual edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Friday that multilateralism provided the basis for all political activities and that multilateral organizations should be strengthened. “I think the past two years have made it clear that this …
Read More »Global new COVID-19 cases decline for 5 weeks but “we’re not out of the woods yet”: WHO
Geneva, Switzerland | THE INDEPENDENT | Although the global number of new COVID-19 cases has fallen for the fifth consecutive week, the world is still not out of the woods and now is not the time to let the guard down, senior officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) have warned. …
Read More »WHO seeks USD 1.96 billion for 2021 COVID-19 response plan
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking nearly USD 2 billion to fund its 2021 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 response which, was launched on Thursday in Geneva. The 2021 plan will have six objectives: suppressing transmission, reducing exposure, countering misinformation and disinformation, …
Read More »WHO approves two more COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed two more versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green light for them to be rolled out globally through the COVAX facility, set up to ensure equitable access to the drug across the world. …
Read More »WHO experts meet to review efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine
Geneva, Switzerland | Xinhua | Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) met on Monday to review the efficacy of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, after a study showed it was less effective against a new variant, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Earlier on Sunday, South Africa, where the …
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