White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that it is imperative that the report be independent and free from “alteration by the Chinese government”, echoing concerns raised by the administration of former President Donald Trump, who also moved to quit the WHO over the issue.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy fired back with a strongly-worded statement, saying the United States had damaged multilateral cooperation and the WHO in recent years, and should not be “pointing fingers” at China and other countries that supported the WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic.

China welcomed the U.S. decision to reengage with the WHO, but Washington should hold itself to the “highest standards” instead of taking aim at other countries, the spokesperson said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said all hypotheses were still open about the origins of Covid-19, after Washington said it wanted to review data from a WHO-led mission to China, where the virus first emerged.

A WHO-led mission, which spent four weeks in China probing the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, said this week that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which is considered highly unlikely.

The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing strongly denies.

Sullivan noted that U.S. President Joe Biden had quickly reversed the decision to disengage from the WHO, but said it was imperative to protect the organization’s credibility.

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

The team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary, Retuers reported.

The post US expresses ‘deep concerns’ about WHO COVID-19 report appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective and should be deployed widely, including in countries where the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce its efficacy, a World Health Organization panel said on Wednesday.

The benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University outweigh any risks and the shot should recommend for use, including in people aged 65 and older, the WHO panel said.

Earlier South Africa stopped part of its roll out of the AstraZeneca vaccine after data small trial showed it did not protect against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant of the coronvirus now dominant in the country.

The WHO said it expected by mid-February to finalise its review of the shot for emergency use approval under COVAX agreement.

The post WHO panel recommends wide use of Oxford- AstraZeneca Covid vaccine appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

In a tweet on November 1 (Sunday), Tedros Adhanom said that he has been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for coronavirus and that he was under self-quarantine.

“I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19. I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.

I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19. I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home.

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2020

Tedros has been at the forefront of the United Nations health agency’s efforts to battle the pandemic since it was reported in China.

“My @WHO colleagues and I will continue to engage with partners in solidarity to save lives and protect the vulnerable. Together!” Tedros tweeted.

The WHO chief stressed on Twitter that “it is critically important that we all comply with health guidance”. “This is how we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems,” he said.

The 55-year-old former Ethiopian minister of health and foreign affairs has for months reiterated that each person has a role to play in halting the spread of the virus.

The WHO urges all individuals to be careful about hand-washing, wearing masks and keeping a distance, while it calls on authorities at various levels to work to find, isolate, test and care for cases, then trace and quarantine their contacts.

The post WHO Chief in quarantine appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

World Bank said that success of the model stemmed from a combination of “customised solutions”, community involvement and perseverance.

Dharavi, which is located in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, is spread over an area of 2.5 square kilometres and has a population of 6,50,000. During the initial days, the slum saw a rapid transmission of the deadly virus.

The first COVID-19 patient in Dharavi was detected on April 1, nearly three weeks after Mumbai recorded its first positive case on March 11.

The Washington-based global lender, in its biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity report, said that in the space of three months, by July 2020, reported cases in the area had been cut to 20 per cent of their peak in May. It appreciated the effective approach that tapped the skills and dedication of community members to stem the rapid spread of coronavirus in Dharavi.

It also praised how Mumbai civic body mobilised community members and staff from private medical clinics for a strategy based on mass screening for fever and oxygen levels. To help poor families during the lockdown, foundations, nongovernmental organisations and volunteers provided thousands of households with ration kits.

On Tuesday, a Mumbai civic body official said that the COVID-19 tally in Dharavi slum colony rose to 3,280 with the addition of 22 fresh cases.

Of the total 3,280 cases, 2,795 patients have been recovered from the infection, he said, adding that the slum now has 192 active patients.

In July, the World Health Organisation (WHO) also praised the efforts taken to contain the spread of the COVID-19 in Dharavi, underscoring the need for community engagement along with national unity and global solidarity to turn the pandemic around.

The post World Bank praises efforts to control COVID-19 spread in Mumbai’s Dharavi appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

The UN Interagency Task Force award was announced by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The award recognises achievements during 2019 on the multisectoral action in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, mental health and the wider sustainable development goals related to it.

This is the first time Kerala has been recognised for the annual award. The state is among the seven ministries of health across the world.

Health Minister KK Shailaja congratulated all the health workers in the state and said the award was a recognition of their tireless service. “The state government has arranged facilities from the basic public health centres to hospitals at all levels to treat the lifestyle diseases,” Shailaja said in a statement. “We were able to control the death rate during the Covid-19 period as we were able to focus on the NCDs [non-communicable diseases].”

The Kerala government said the United Nations award was a recognition of the lifestyle disease control mechanism in Kerala, and the treatment and free services received by a large section of the population. “In addition, the state-of-the-art lung disease control program, cancer treatment program and paralysis control program were also considered for the award,” the government added.

The post Kerala wins UN award for ‘outstanding contribution’ towards prevention, control of non-communicable disease appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

“There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future. There is a lot to be concerned about,” Tedros said, in some of his strongest comments of recent weeks.

The coronavirus pandemic raging around the globe will worsen if countries fail to adhere to strict healthcare protocols, WHO warned.

“Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from the UN agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

“If basics are not followed, the only way this pandemic is going to go – it is going to get worse and worse and worse.”

The US and Brazil are the worst hit countries.

Tedros, whose leadership has been heavily criticised by US President Donald Trump , said that of 2,30,000 new cases recorded on July 12, 80 percent were from 10 nations and 50 percent from just two counties.

A WHO advance team has gone to China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, first discovered in the city of Wuhan. The team members are in quarantine as per standard procedure, before they begin work with Chinese scientists, WHO emergencies head Mike Ryan said.

The post No return to normal for foreseeable future, WHO appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

“The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings cannot be ruled out,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead, said. “There is some evidence emerging but it is not definitive. We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field and therefore we believe we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding transmissions and precautions,” she said.

More than 200 scientists on July 6 have outlined evidence that novel coronavirus can spread in tiny airborne particles. The details were revealed in an open letter to the Geneva-based agency, published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal. However, it is clear that scientists still lack a complete understanding of the respiratory disease even after several months into the pandemic.

The WHO has previously said the virus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease spreads primarily through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person that quickly sink to the ground.

The term ‘airbone’ refers to the transmission of a pathogen through tiny respiratory droplets(aerosols) that can remain in the atmosphere, as opposed to large droplets that fall to the ground within a few feet.

Any change in the WHO’s assessment of the risk of transmission could affect its current advice on keeping 1-metre (3.3 feet) of physical distancing. Governments, which rely on the agency for guidance policy, may also have to adjust public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

The post WHO acknowledges evidence of airborne spread of COVID-19 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

The authorities issued a level third warning of plague prevention and control which will continue until the end of 2020. The advisory forbids people from hunting and eating of animals that cause plague infections. It also asked the public to report the suspected cases.

The confirmed cases include a 27-year-old man and his younger brother who is 17. A total of 146 people who made contact with them have been put in quarantine and are in the treatment stage.

According to the World Health Organization, the bubonic plague is a highly bacterial infection and deadly disease that is linked to eating marmot meat. This plague can kill an adult in under 24 hours revealed the health experts. Human-to-human transmission is very rare. But any person with pneumonic plague may transmit disease through droplets

It can be deadly, but can be treated with commonly available antibiotics. The bubonic plague is characterised by swollen lymph nodes. It can be hard to identify in its early stages because symptoms, which usually develop after three to seven days, are flu-like. However, the bubonic plague, infamously known as Black Death, turning to an epidemic is unlikely.

The post China warns of Bubonic plague amid COVID-19 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.