"IMMUNIZATION"

At the launch of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, the President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir said the COVID-19 pandemic has forced more children into labour and stressed that the world “must ensure that this generation is not lost.” UNIFEED

Secretary-General António Guterres said, “this is a race against time,” and added that unless COVID-19 vaccines are made available in quick and equitable way, “mutations in the global south will undermine the vaccination campaign in the global north.” UNIFEED

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was a “huge disconnect growing” on the COVID-19 front. He stressed that the “pandemic is a long way far from over, and it will not be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere." WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged rich countries “to reconsider” vaccinating children and adolescents “and to instead donate vaccines to COVAX.” WHO

The US announcement to support a temporary waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines is “a significant statement of solidarity and support for vaccine equity,” WHO chief Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said on Friday, urging other countries “to follow their example." WHO

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Representative in India, Yasmin Ali Haque, called for “investment in the services that are critical for children to remain healthy, for them to thrive, and also to recover from the trauma that they are facing” during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNIFEED / UNICEF FILE

The World Health Organization’s Representative in India, Dr Roderico Ofrin, said the country’s COVID-19 crisis is multi-factorial and stressed the need to be “ahead of the game” in terms of response and preparedness as the “tools are the same.” UN NEWS / UNIFEED

Briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

World Health Programme (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the COVID-19 pandemic continues to intensify at a global level and noted that “there were almost as many cases globally last week as in the first five months of the pandemic." WHO

WHO’s chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "around the world, cases and deaths are continuing to increase at worrying rates," adding that “this is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far during the pandemic. Some countries that had previously avoided widespread transmission are now seeing steep increases in infections." WHO