Self-isolation has driven more and more children to move online during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an unprecedented rise in screen time and raising safety risks for millions of young people, the UN said on Tuesday.
While political actors in Colombia are uniting to confront COVID-19, they must also work together to fight “the epidemic of violence” against civil society leaders, human rights defenders and former combatants, the head of the UN mission in the country said on Tuesday during a Security Council meeting held by videoconference.
The United Nations and its partners are doing their utmost to support a comprehensive, multi-pronged effort to stem the impact of COVID-19 in Syria, where the viral disease has claimed the lives of two people, sickened 23 others and presented epic challenges for ensuring the smooth delivery of life-saving assistance.
Forecasting the “worst economic downturn since the Great Depression”, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that growth for the year was likely to end up at minus three per cent, with a dramatic change evident since the last World Economic Outlook report in January.
A global effort is needed now and in the months ahead, to fight the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, according to the United Nations, and the organization is demonstrating how cooperation in all corners of the world is helping lessen the effects of the virus on the most vulnerable.
Cost-effective interventions such as blood screening, as well as improved hygiene and food safety, could save millions from what the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as a “silent and silenced disease” that mainly affects poor people.
As the world battles the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and people are searching for clear facts and answers to questions, that could help save countless lives, “a dangerous epidemic of misinformation” is also spreading, the United Nations chief warned on Tuesday.
The first of the UN’s “Solidarity Flights” carrying urgently needed medical equipment to Africa, has arrived in Addis Ababa, agencies said on Tuesday, part of a UN-wide initiative to ensure life-saving medical supplies get to where they are needed in the battle against COVID-19.
As countries around the world continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 117 million children risk missing out on measles vaccines, two UN agencies warned in Geneva on Tuesday.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), outlined his agency’s latest advice to countries on Monday in a statement, stressing that a mix of social distancing, testing, contact tracing and isolation, will be crucial to further curb the spread of the new coronavirus already devastating much of the globe.
