Global solidarity to tackle Covid still lacking
Six months on since declaring a pandemic, the WHO chief said on Thursday the lack of solidarity and leadership among world powers was "what worries me most" in the fight against Covid-19.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus was still spreading around the planet precisely due to the gaps between the major players in combatting the disease.
Though the UN health agency declared a public health emergency of international concern -- its highest level of alarm -- on January 30, Tedros first described the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, capturing public attention.
Reflecting on this point in the crisis during a virtual news conference, Tedros said: "What worries me most is... a lack of solidarity.
"Because when solidarity lacks, and when we're divided, that's a very good opportunity for the virus -- and that's why it's still spreading.
"That's what worries me and that's what I ask the world to do.
"We will need solidarity and we will need global leadership, especially of the major powers in the world. That's how we can defeat this virus."
WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said AstraZeneca's pause of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus after the illness of a participant is a "wake-up call" but should not discourage researchers.
"This is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared," Swaminathan told a virtual briefing from Geneva.
"We do not have to be discouraged. These things happen."
Governments are desperate for a vaccine to help end the pandemic, and the WHO had flagged AstraZeneca's vaccine, being developed with Oxford University, as the most promising.
However, the drugmaker suspended late-stage trials this week after a participant in Britain suffered from neurological symptoms.
"It's a race against this virus, and it's a race to save lives. It's not a race between companies, and it's not a race between countries," added WHO's head of emergencies Mike Ryan.
WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said a combination of factors is helping reduce death rates in Europe, including finding cases earlier and better clinical care.
"We are in a better position to prevent the virus from infecting vulnerable populations," she said, cautioning, however, that the disease's long-term effects were still not known.
The virus has killed more than 909,000 people and infected at least 28.2 million since the outbreak emerged in China last December.
India reported another record daily jump of 96,551 coronavirus cases yesterday, taking its case load to 4.5 million, data from the federal health ministry showed.
Infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world and the United States is the only nation worse affected, reports Reuters.
Deaths have remained relatively low in the country, but are seeing an upward trend, with more than one thousand deaths being reported every day for the last ten days.
Yesterday, 1,209 people died from Covid-19, the ministry said, taking total mortalities to 76,271.
South Korea posted a slight rise in daily cases yesterday, as infections eased from a church and political rally that sparked a second wave of outbreaks and new cases emerged in religious and sporting groups and a university hospital.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 176 new cases as of midnight Thursday, which brought the total infections to 21,919, with 350 deaths.
A fresh wave of infections erupted at a church whose members attended a large protest in downtown Seoul last month have driven the daily tally to its peak in months at 441.
North Korean authorities have issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus entering the country from China, according to the commander of US forces in the South.
The impoverished North -- whose crumbling health system would struggle to cope with a major virus outbreak -- has not confirmed a single case of the disease that has swept the world since first emerging in China, the North's key ally.
In Europe, 90 people have tested positive and eight have died in two care homes in central Switzerland in two of the largest outbreaks seen in retirement facilities, reports AFP.
Ukraine registered a record daily high of 3,144 new cases of the coronavirus yesterday, the national security council said, topping a previous record of 2,836 on September 5.
"We have a new record. And we have no other way but to adhere to the rules of the new reality - mask, distance and clean hands," Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told a televised briefing.
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