Tedros Adhanom

A report by the World Health Organisation has found that nearly 1 in 3 women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime globally, resulting in "around 736 million, are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner."

“Violence against women is endemic in every country and culture, causing harm to millions of women and their families, and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “But unlike COVID-19, violence against women cannot be stopped with a vaccine. We can only fight it with deep-rooted and sustained efforts – by governments, communities and individuals – to change harmful attitudes, improve access to opportunities and services for women and girls, and foster healthy and mutually respectful relationships.”

Ghana received delivery of 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 jabs acquired through the Covax initiative. The initiative is an immunisation-sharing scheme designed to help developing countries in the vaccination effort.

The United Nations-backed initiative delivered Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India.

The World Health Organization director Dr Tedros Adhanom previously said that bilateral deals between rich nationals and vaccine manufacturers have made it more difficult for Covax to acquire jabs, leading Rwanda's President Paul Kagame to condemn "hypocrisy and double standards" in global distribution efforts.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has released a statement urging Tanzania to "scale public health measures against COVID-19 and to prepare for vaccination" and to share "data in light of reports of COVID-19 cases among travellers." Tanzania had last shared its Covid-19 data in May 2020.

"This situation remains very concerning. I renew my call for Tanzania to start reporting COVID-19 cases and share data. I also call on Tanzania to implement the public health measures that we know work in breaking the chains of transmission and to prepare for vaccination," the statement read.

A World Health Organization (WHO) team was denied entry to China to study the origions of Covid-19 in Wuhan, citing a lack of visa clearances.

"I have been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedure for the earliest possible deployment," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Tuesday, adding that he was "very disappointed" that China had not yet finalized the permissions for the team's arrivals "given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute".

In separate letters sent to the president of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom, 106 European lawmakers from eastern European countries have collectively expressed a “high-level of support” for Taiwan’s participation at the WHO’s 73rd annual assembly.

They argue that Taiwan's work to control the Covid-19 pandemic inside the country is “exemplary”.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting a significant decrease in childhood vaccination rates since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in March. The study shows a decline in vaccination rates of around 17% in 5-month-year-old children in May 2020, resulting in only approx. 50% of children being vaccinated. "The avoidable suffering and death caused by children missing out on routine immunisations could be far greater than Covid-19 itself," warns Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general.

"With lower than normal vaccination coverage among all age groups, children may be at higher risk for vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough, chickenpox, and more," said CEO of Magnolia Health Aaron Sisk, adding that "even during these uncertain times, it’s important that we continue to encourage everyone to protect themselves, including getting immunizations to protect children from preventable health complications."

World Health Organization Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that the WHO has launched the "Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response" to review the agency's and governments' response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The panel will be headed by Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former president of Liberia.

"Through you, the world will understand the truth of what happened and also the solutions to build our future better as one humanity," so Ghebreyesus. He further warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is not under control but instead is "still accelerating" and that "total number of cases has doubled in the last six weeks."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has stopped a clinical trial for hydroxychloroquine due to safety concerns after a paper published in The Lancet showed that people taking the drug were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those that were not.

During a news briefing WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated "This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in Covid-19,"