COVID-19

© UNICEF/Zhang Yuwei

Experts underscore COVID-19 threat to global progress on child immunization

22 May 2020
Health

Global experts in health and child welfare have again highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting access to routine immunization services worldwide, putting millions of young lives at risk of killer diseases such as diphtheria, measles and pneumonia.

UNDP

Build back better and preserve biodiversity after COVID-19 pandemic: UN chief

22 May 2020
Climate Change

Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic must also lead to countries uniting to preserve the natural world, in line with global commitments to achieve a better future for all people and the planet, top officials with the United Nations said on Friday, the International Day for Biological Diversity.

© UNICEF

Yemen: Coronavirus transmission likely widespread, decimating ‘collapsed’ health system, UN warns

22 May 2020
Humanitarian Aid

War-torn Yemen’s health system has ‘in effect, collapsed” under the strain of a widening COVID-19 outbreak, with epidemiologists estimating that the virus could spread faster and more widely than in many other countries, the UN warned on Friday.

© UNICEF/West Bengal IAG

India and Bangladesh: Health and environmental risks grow, following deadly cyclone

22 May 2020
Interviews

UN humanitarians and partners are working hard to assist the people of Bangladesh and India suffering from the impact of Cyclone Amphan, which left dozens dead, causing widespread destruction.

According to the UN Country Team in India, Cyclone Amphan, with more than 2.4 million people and 500,000 livestock evacuated to cyclone shelters., is now considered even more destructive than Cyclone Aila, which slammed the region in 2009.

Due to flooding and the extensive damage caused, the risk of disease outbreaks is high, and further environmental risks remain, due to the large amounts of debris and waste.

Ranjini Mukherjee, Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist, from UN India, described the situation to UN News’s Anshu Sharma, and told her that efforts continue to be implemented in shelter homes to minimize risk of infection and prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

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UNDP Somalia/Ali Adan Abdi

Somalia looks to first full elections in 51 years, despite COVID-19 crisis

21 May 2020
Peace and Security

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are acute for Somalia, but the Horn of Africa nation is doing what it can with the resources it has, even as it looks ahead to its first direct elections in a half-century, the top UN official in the country said on Thursday.

© UNICEF/Balam-ha Carrillo

Danger awaits migrant children returned to Mexico and Central America during pandemic

21 May 2020
Migrants and Refugees

Migrant children forcibly returned from the United States to Mexico and Central America are facing danger and discrimination aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

ESCAP/Suwat Chancharoensuk

Asia-Pacific nations commit the whole region to ‘defeat’ COVID-19

21 May 2020
Health

Gathering together at the top UN intergovernmental body in Asia and the Pacific on Thursday, countries of the vast region of more than four billion people, urged greater measures that reinforce global solidarity in ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

© UNHCR/Samuel Otieno

UN agencies join forces to protect forcibly displaced during pandemic

21 May 2020
Health

To strengthen and advance public health services for millions of forcibly displaced people globally, two United Nations signed an agreement on Thursday to better protect some 70 million from COVID-19.

© UNICEF/Alajandra Pocaterra

Only Venezuelans can resolve Venezuela’s deepening crisis, DiCarlo tells Security Council

20 May 2020
Peace and Security

Negotiations remain the only way to overcome the ongoing political deadlock in Venezuela, especially given the potentially far-reaching impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday.

UN News/Daniel Dickinson

Tedros hails WHO ‘landmark resolution’ to accelerate COVID-19 response

20 May 2020
Health

With  “unprecedented solidarity”, the World Health Assembly adopted a “landmark resolution” on Tuesday, which sets out a “clear roadmap” of the actions needed to sustain and accelerate the COVID-19 response at both national and international levels, the UN health agency chief told a press briefing on Wednesday, the day after the meeting concluded.