"WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO"

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros said, "a year ago today, fewer than 1,500 cases of COVID-19 had been reported to WHO, including just 23 cases outside China. This week, we expect to reach 100 million reported cases." WHO

COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, which has already received WHO emergency use listing. WHO

At the meeting of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) today, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros welcomed the pledge that the United States will remain a member of WHO. WHO

WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that almost one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has "an unprecedented opportunity to make health the heartbeat of development, and the foundation of a more secure, and more equitable world." WHO

As COVID-19 cases spike in Europe, Africa and the Americas, WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “we are collectively not succeeding at breaking the chains of transmission at the community level or within households. We need to close the gap between intent and implementation at the country and individual level because at present there is immense pressure on hospitals and health workers." WHO

WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “a collective commitment” so that within the next 100 days, COVID-19 vaccination for health workers and those at high-risk in all countries are underway, adding that “Governments, manufacturers, civil society, religious and community leaders must come together to create the greatest mass mobilization in history for equitable vaccination." WHO

The WHO urged “countries that have contracted more vaccines than they will need” and those who control the global supply of the Covid-19 vaccines “to donate and release them to COVAX immediately, which is ready today to roll them out quickly. " WHO

“Vaccinating health workers and those at high risk of serious disease is the fastest way to stabilize health systems,” said the WHO’s Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, as more than 30 countries have started vaccinating their high-risk populations with various COVID-19 vaccines. WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said “this virus has exposed our societies, exposed us, exposed the problems that we have. The level of inequity, the level of poverty, the level of exclusion,” adding that “health alone will not be a solution. We have to address the root cause of the problem too: the inequity in our society.” WHO

Briefing by Jerry Matthews Matjila, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, on the South Africa Security Council Presidency during the month of December 2020.