The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world. From a report: A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India. “We now have all the pieces in place…
Tag: Tedros
WHO Sees First Results From COVID Drug Trials Within Two Weeks
The World Health Organization (WHO) should soon get results from clinical trials it is conducting of drugs that might be effective in treating COVID-19 patients, its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. From a report: “Nearly 5,500 patients in 39 countries have so far been recruited into the Solidarity trial,” he told a news briefing, referring to clinical studies…
In America, Only Three States Use Google-Apple Contact Tracing App
NBC News reports that in various parts of America, “States that had committed to using contact tracing apps or expressed interest are now backing away from those claims.”
The few states that have rolled them out have seen only tepid responses. And there are no indications of any momentum for the apps at a national level… A survey of state health officials…
New Ebola Outbreak Declared in Congo City That Last Saw the Virus in 2018
Congo’s health minister confirmed the discovery of a new Ebola case in the country’s Equateur province, which last saw an outbreak of the highly deadly virus in 2018, ultimately killing 33 people there. From a report: The province’s governor, Bobo Boloko Bolumbu, spoke on national radio earlier on Monday, saying there were five likely cases and that four of those infected…
WHO Temporarily Suspends Trial of Hydroxychloroquine Over Safety Concerns
The World Health Organization is temporarily pausing tests of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment in order to review safety concerns, the agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said Monday. From a report: The decision comes after a retrospective review published in The Lancet found that coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine or its related drug chloroquine were more likely to…
Coronavirus 10 Times More Deadly Than Swine Flu, Says WHO
The coronavirus has proven ten times deadlier than the swine flu outbreak that spread across the globe a decade prior, the World Health Organization has confirmed. The Independent reports: The swine flu pandemic, which spanned a stretch of time between January 2009 and August 2010, saw more than 1.6 million confirmed cases, resulting in the confirmed deaths of 18,449 people. Now…
Europe Is Now the ‘Epicenter’ of the Coronavirus Pandemic, WHO Says
Europe has become the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases in China slow and the deadly coronavirus runs through Italy and nearby countries, World Health Organization officials said Friday. CNBC reports: “More cases are now being reported [in Europe] every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said…
WHO Estimates Coronavirus Death Rate At 3.4 Percent — Higher Than Earlier Estimates
The World Health Organization is warning that the novel coronavirus could be far more dangerous than the flu, with a mortality rate of 3.4%. The new estimates come as the U.S. death toll from the virus reaches 9. From a report: The global mortality rate — which includes more than 3,000 deaths — is many times higher than the “mortality rate”…