coronavirus

WHO/Blink Media/Uma Bista

COVID’s grip keeps world in ‘perilous situation’

10 May 2021
Health

Amidst an “unacceptably high plateau” in COVID-19 cases and deaths globally, the UN health agency chief on Monday shone a light on last week’s death toll that totalled almost 90 thousand people and 5.4 million reported cases. 

© UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh

India’s new COVID-19 wave is spreading like ‘wildfire’, warns UN Children’s Fund

7 May 2021
Health

A new wave of COVID-19 infections is spreading like “wildfire” across India, leaving many youngsters destitute, the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said on Friday.

© UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh

News in Brief 7 May 2021

7 May 2021
News in Brief
  • COVID-19 spreading like 'wildfire' in India: UNICEF
  • Probe into Rio favella police operation that left 25 dead
  • Attacks force thousands to flee in Burkina Faso
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3'20"
UN News

UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva - Madagascar crisis, Africa COVID alert, US lifts vaccine protections, South Sudan schools reopen

6 May 2021
UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva

In this week’s UN Catch-Up: a veteran aid worker’s take on the distressing scale of the humanitarian crisis in Southern Madagascar – it’s on the “periphery of famine”, he tells us, and not for the first time.

There’s an alert too from WHO on Africa where a “third wave “of coronavirus infections is feared, along with some good news – and some not so good - from South Sudan, where schools have reopened after lockdown, and positive news from the United States, which has decided to lift patent restrictions on COVID vaccines. 

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15'1"
© UNICEF/Seyba Keïta

News in Brief 6 May 2021

6 May 2021
News in Brief
  • COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver in US, hailed by UN chief
  • Maximize vaccines to avoid deadly 3rd wave in Africa - WHO
  • Latin America rights groups face growing threats, attacks: Bachelet
Audio -
3'10"
PAHO/Karen González

WHO chief hails ‘monumental moment’ in COVID fight, as US throws support behind vaccine patent waiver

6 May 2021
Health

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said the commitment announced by the United States administration to lift vaccine patent protections to help boost global supply, was a “monumental moment” in the battle to end the deadly pandemic.

© WFP/Shelley Thakral

News in Brief 5 May 2021

5 May 2021
News in Brief
  • COVID-19 pandemic preparedness hub to open in Berlin to promote transparency, early warning capability
  • 155 million faced acute food insecurity last year, with conflict the main driver
  • South Asia at breaking point as COVID infections spike: UNICEF
Audio -
3'23"
UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh

South Asia: ‘Real possibility’ health systems will be strained to a breaking point, UNICEF warns

5 May 2021
Health

Impacts of the deadly new surge in COVID-19 cases across South Asia are unlike anything the region has seen before, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said, warning of a “real possibility” that health systems there will be strained to a breaking point, leading to even more loss of life. 

© UNICEF/Biju Boro

UN envoy Gordon Brown urges G7 countries to fund global COVID vaccination push

3 May 2021
Health

Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Monday for the world’s richest nations to underwrite COVID-19 vaccination in poorer countries, highlighting the need to raise some $60 billion over the next two years. 

UN News

UN has ‘all hands on deck’ across India to help save lives amid deadly COVID surge

3 May 2021
Interviews

The United Nations has deployed all the personnel and resources at its disposal to help Indians deal with the deadly surge in COVID-19 that has seen more than 300,000 reported new cases per day, for almost two weeks now, and left many hospitals overwhelmed.

That’s according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) India Representative, Dr. Roderico Ofrin, speaking exclusively to UN News, who told Anshu Sharma that tried and trust methods of bringing down the numbers would surely work, if India can get “ahead of the game”.

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9'16"