This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

‘No free ride’ for COVID-19: WHO’s Tedros

The world must accept that COVID-19 is with us “for the foreseeable future”, even if it is possible to end the acute phase of the pandemic this year, the UN health agency chief said on Monday.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking in Geneva, where he noted that last week, 100 cases of COVID-19 were reported every three seconds, and somebody lost their life to the virus every 12 seconds.

It is still “dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant, or that we are in the endgame” of the pandemic, he said, adding that “globally…conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge.”

In an appeal to all countries, Tedros said that their top priorities should be to stop future health threats from taking hold – not least by promoting basic healthcare for everyone.

On tackling the coronavirus specifically, Tedros urged better management of acute respiratory diseases in future, via a “sustained and integrated” international platform.

Misinformation threat to inoculation campaigns

Staying with WHO, top agency officials warned on Monday about potential disruption to national vaccination campaigns as a direct result of wilful misinformation about COVID-19 jabs and treatment.

To tackle false information about the coronavirus, WHO encourages community and faith leaders everywhere to present an accurate and science-based view of the pandemic, and its risks.

Here’s Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead, speaking in Geneva:

“This is a huge problem that we’ve been dealing with, not just with vaccines but throughout this entire pandemic and it continues to be a massive problem. Disinformation - misinformation kills, and it travels faster than viruses, so…We really need people to pass good information to each other.”

The UN health agency also works with large social media platforms to issue warnings over posts that are not factual, based on policies that have been developed to target unfounded rumours.

Syria: Condemnation for ISIL detention centre attack 

Dozens of prisoners linked to terrorists ISIL are believed to have escaped from a prison in northeast Syria following an attack involving explosions and gunfire, UN aid coordinator OCHA said on Monday.

The targeting of Sina’a jail in Al-Hasakeh city on Thursday follows multiple previous attacks and riots, although this was the largest incident yet.

In an update, OCHA said that airstrikes and gunfire had been reported in neighbourhoods close to the prison, and that a total lockdown was announced in the city on Sunday.

With hostilities confined to southern areas and unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties, the UN humanitarian office said that around a dozen aid trucks on their way to warehouses in Qamishli are stranded in Al Hasakeh city or at Ar Raqqa.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.