EMERGENCY  ANNOUNCEMENT

Corona Virus:  COVID-19

WHO UPDATE: JULY 30, 2021  

Director-General's opening remarks at the media

briefing on COVID-19:  30 July 2021

Courtesy, United Nations -  World Health Organization (WHO)

VIEW MEDIA BRIEFINGS UPDATES at:  https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/media-resources/press-briefings

WHO Foundation Established to Support Critical Global Health Needs:  27 May 2020

https://www.who.foundation/en

Press Briefing by White House COVID-19

Response Team and Public Health Officials

Must See Video - July 22, 2021 

Video Courtesy,  The White House

We need to regain control over COVID-19!

WHO: Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Epidemiologist

Read more at: "The world needs a reality check!"

Must See Video - 7 July 2021

Video Courtesy, World Health Organization (WHO)

Must See Video

On 2 June 2021, the Government of Japan hosted the virtual Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). The event aimed to accelerate access to 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses for lower-income economies via the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment.

Learn more at:  https://www.gavi.org/gavi-covax-amc-summit-2021

Important Announcement

U.S. to share millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses with

other countries | President Biden speaks with

Prime Minister Modi as COVID-19 surges in India

April 26, 2021

"Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need."

Quote Courtesy, U.S. President Joe Biden 

Read more:  https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/550362-overnight-health-care-us-to-share-millions-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-doses

​

https://news.yahoo.com/u-determined-help-india-biden-224013781.html

Important Announcement

United States will remain a member of WHO

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci - January 21, 2021

Courtesy, United Nations

Global Vaccination Plan

17 February 2021

Addressing virtual meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the goal of providing vaccines to all as“the biggest moral test before the global community,”

underlining that

everyone, everywhere must be included.  

Must See Video:  https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1084962

Video Courtesy - United Nations

Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19:  30 July 2021  
  

"Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Earlier this week, I had the honour of traveling to Bahrain and Kuwait, where WHO has opened our two newest country offices. I also had the opportunity to visit several facilities that have been set up to respond to COVID-19, and was very impressed by the innovative and comprehensive approach.

​

We now have 152 country offices around the world. They are central to what WHO does – supporting countries to strengthen health systems and improve the health of their populations. Before that, I was honoured to be invited to Tokyo to address the International Olympic Committee.

​

I went to answer a question I am often asked: when will the pandemic end? My answer was that the pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it. It’s in our hands. ​We have all the tools we need: we can prevent this disease, we can test for it, and we can treat it.

And yet since our last press conference, cases and deaths from COVID-19 have continued to climb. Almost 4 million cases were reported to WHO last week, and on current trends, we expect the total number of cases to pass 200 million within the next two weeks. And we know that is an underestimate.

On average, in five of WHO’s six regions, infections have increased by 80%, or nearly doubled, over the past four weeks. In Africa, deaths have increased by 80% over the same period.

Much of this increase is being driven by the highly-transmissible Delta variant, which has now been detected in at least 132 countries.

WHO has warned that the COVID-19 virus has been changing since it was first reported, and it continues to change. So far, four variants of concern have emerged, and there will be more as long as the virus continues to spread. The rise is also driven by increased social mixing and mobility, the inconsistent use of public health and social measures, and inequitable vaccine use. 

Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed. The increased number of infections is creating a shortage of treatments such as life-saving oxygen. Twenty-nine countries have high and rising oxygen needs, and many countries have inadequate supplies of basic equipment to protect frontline health workers.

Meanwhile, testing rates in low-income countries are less than 2 percent of what they are in high-income countries – leaving the world blind to understanding where the disease is and how it’s changing.  Without better testing rates globally, we cannot fight the disease on the frontline or mitigate the risk of new, more dangerous variants emerging.

​

WHO is supporting countries with supplies of oxygen, with guidance to help countries better detect variants, and we continue to work daily with our global networks of experts to understand why the Delta variant spreads so readily.

But we need more:

​

We need stronger surveillance;

​

We need more strategic testing to improve the global understanding of where the virus is, where public health interventions are most needed, and to isolate cases and reduce transmission;

​

We need patients to receive early clinical care by trained and protected health workers, with more oxygen to treat the seriously ill and save lives;

​

We need well-trained and well-protected health workers and the systems to deliver the services and the tools to save lives;

​

We need more research and development to ensure that tests, treatments, vaccines and other tools remain effective against the Delta variant and other emerging variants;

And of course, we need more vaccines.

​

Last month, we announced that we were setting up a technology transfer hub for mRNA vaccines in South Africa, as part of our efforts to scale up production of vaccines. Today we have taken another step forward, with a letter of intent that sets out the terms of collaboration signed by the partners in the hub: WHO; the Medicines Patent Pool; Afrigen Biologics; the Biologicals and Vaccines Institute of Southern Africa; the South African Medical Research Council and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

WHO’s goal remains to support every country to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by the end of September, at least 40% by the end of this year, and 70% by the middle of next year.

We are a long way off achieving those targets.

So far, just over half of countries have fully vaccinated 10% of their population, less than a quarter of countries have vaccinated 40%, and only 3 countries have vaccinated 70%.

Almost a year ago, WHO began to express concern about the threat of ‘vaccine nationalism’; In a press conference in November, we warned of the risk that the world’s poor would be “trampled in the stampede for vaccines”; 

And at WHO’s Executive Board meeting in January this year, we said the world was on the verge of a “catastrophic moral failure”. And yet the global distribution of vaccines remains unjust.

All regions are at risk, but none more so than Africa. On current trends, nearly 70% of African countries will not reach the 10% vaccination target by the end of September. Around 3.5 million to 4 million doses are administered weekly on the continent, but to meet the September target this must rise to 21 million doses at the very least each week.

​

Many African countries have prepared well to roll out vaccines, but the vaccines have not arrived. Less than 2% of all doses administered globally have been in Africa. Just 1.5% of the continent’s population are fully vaccinated. This is a very serious problem if we’re going to take action against this pandemic and end it.

In response to the Delta surge, today the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator is launching the Rapid ACT-Accelerator Delta Response, or RADAR, issuing an urgent call for 7.7 billion U.S. dollars for tests, treatments and vaccines.

​

In parallel, we will need additional financing this year for COVAX to exercise its options to purchase vaccines for 2022.

​

This investment is a tiny portion of the amount governments are spending to deal with COVID-19.

​

The question is not whether the world can afford to make these investments; it’s whether it can afford not to . . . "

Read Full Text Courtesy, WHO COVID-19 Briefing:  30 July 2021

See Also:  

ACT-Accelerator:  Access to COVID-19 Tools

COVAX Global Vaccines Facility

COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator

COVID-19 Technology Access Pool [C-TAP]

Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization

2021 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan

Prescriptions for a healthy, green recovery

​

​

Around the World . . .

" COVID-19:  A Global Crisis"

Courtesy, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flag_map_of_the_world#/media/File:Flag-map_of_the_world.svg

Learn more by Country . . . Click Below:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

​

​

Looking back as the world moves

forward with the . . .

Global COVID-19 Pandemic!

See Also:

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/covidtimeline

WHO declares the new coronavirus

outbreak a Public Health Emergency

of International Concern

January 30, 2020

Courtesy, UN - WHO

Learn more / get latest UPDATES & INFO

on the following web page:

https://www.who.int/

See Also:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NnNunRXR80

​

​

Opening remarks of the Secretary-General's appeal for global ceasefire - 23 March 2020

. . . This is crucial . . . 

To help create corridors for life-saving aid. To open precious windows for diplomacy.  To bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to COVID-19.  

Let us take inspiration from coalitions and dialogue slowly taking shape among rival parties in some parts to enable joint approaches to COVID-19.  But we need much more. 

​

End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world. 

​

It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere. Now. 

​

That is what our human family needs, now more than ever.  

Courtesy, United Nations - Read full text at:   https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2020-03-23/secretary-general-appeal-for-global-ceasefire

​

​

Important Reminder on . . .

Human Rights and COVID-19

Response and Recovery

23 April 2020

Video Courtesy, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS

Learn more at:

  United Nations:  UN Coronavirus (COVID-19)

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE PLAN

https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/Global-Humanitarian-Response-Plan-COVID-19.pdf

Let's All Support Global Health Workers

During this Global Health Emergency!

Learn more on the following web page: 

https://www.who.int/campaigns/annual-theme/year-of-health-and-care-workers-2021/campaign-materials