Health Care Workers

US President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have been named Time magazine's Person of the Year 2020. Other finalists were frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19, Dr Anthony Fauci, the racial justice movement, and President Donald Trump, who lost the election earlier this year.

In the annual Service to America Medals (the Sammies) Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., the director of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health has been awarded as the Federal Employee of the Year.

Partnership for Public Service, which presents the annual awards, has stated that Fauci has "served as the government’s premier expert and spokesperson on infectious diseases during six presidencies, including taking a prominent role in seeking to protect the public from the highly contagious and deadly new coronavirus that swept through the country and the world in 2020,".

The Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced that all Covid-19 vaccines that will be approved in the future by Health Canada will be made available for free to all Canadians through the health-care system.

The government also indicated that first, the most vulnerable and essential workers should have access to a vaccine.

Zimbabwe is facing a shortage of health care workers, basic drugs and medical equipment. Medical staff reports of being overburdened, overworked and underpaid. Amid rising Coronavirus cases and health care crisis, the capital Harare reports seven stillbirths in one week.

France will spend €8 billion in pay rise to health care workers. This results in an average monthly pay increase of €183. The deal was signed by trade unions and both Prime Minister Jean Castex and Health Minister Olivier Véran. Castex called this deal a "historic moment for our health system".