"DISEASE CONTROL"

Based on evidence indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) has advised the World Health Organization (WHO) that this variant should be designated as a VOC, and the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a Variant of Concern (VOC) named Omicron. WHO

The Head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, said, “the global number of reported cases and deaths from COVID-19 is now increasing for the first time in two months, driven by an ongoing rise in Europe that outweighs declines in other regions.” WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, said there is a tendency for “mixing and matching” vaccine doses and warned that “it will be chaotic in countries if citizens start deciding when and who should be taking a second, third or a fourth dose." WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVAX partners are working with a South African consortium comprising Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish its first COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub. WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Republic of Germany will establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation. The Hub, based in Berlin and working with partners around the world, will lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to predict, prevent, detect prepare for and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide. WHO

Addressing an ECOSOC Special Ministerial Meeting on a Vaccine for All, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said, “vaccine equity is the challenge of our time. And we are failing.” UNIFEED

Secretary-General António Guterres noted that just 10 countries account for around 75 percent of global COVID-19 vaccinations, while other countries have yet to start. He said, “a global vaccine gap threatens everyone’s health and wellbeing.” UNIFEED

World Health Programme (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "the gap between the number of vaccines administered in rich countries, and the number of vaccines administered through COVAX is growing every day and becoming more grotesque every day.” WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noted that the first COVID-19 vaccinations started in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, an "in addition to those two countries, COVAX has now delivered vaccines in Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Gambia, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Nigeria, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda." WHO

The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guinea, Vincent Martin, briefed reporters by video teleconference from Conakry on the two epidemics the country is facing, COVID-19 and Ebola which re-emerged two weeks ago. UNIFEED