A joint press conference between World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and President of the European Council Charles Michel has promoted the idea of a new international health treaty to help pandemic preparedness in the future.
Tedros said: “The pandemic has thrived amid the inequalities in our societies, the geopolitical fault lines in our world, and the frayed trust in our public institutions.”
More than 20 world leaders including Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, and Angela Merkel have signed an open op-ed in support of the idea, although China, Russia and the US are notable absentees.
Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has resumed work after recovering from Covid-19, according to the state press agency SANA.
Turkey has announced that preclinical trials for an intranasal Covid-19 vaccine have been completed successfully, paving the way for a domestically-produced vaccine. The news comes even as the country re-imposes some restrictions amid rising numbers.
A British minister has said the country is focused on vaccinating the whole of its adult population before it would be able to provide surplus shots to other countries.
South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines are among countries to be hit by shipment delays to vaccines they have been promised under the COVAX programme, after India restricted some exports.
Honduras’ government has said it will temporarily restrict arrivals from South America, citing fears about the so-called “Brazilian variant” of the coronavirus entering its territory.
Sweden’s health agency has asked the government to postpone a planned easing of some restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19 by nearly a month as the country grapples with a third wave.
Visitor numbers at the world’s top 100 museums and art galleries plunged by 77% last year in the wake of lockdowns and closures imposed due to the pandemic.
Scientists have determined the “recipes” for two Covid-19 vaccines using leftovers in vials bound for the trash and published the mRNA sequences on Github.
That’s it from me, Martin Belam. I’m handing over to my colleague Yohannes Lowe, and I’ll see you again tomorrow.
This powerful idea, of a treaty rooted in WHO, has resulted in the joint statement issued today and published in major newspapers around the world and in multiple languages, which has been signed, so far, by twenty-five heads of state and heads of government. They represent a diversity of countries, from north and south, east and west.
The pandemic has thrived amid the inequalities in our societies, the geopolitical fault lines in our world, and the frayed trust in our public institutions. It has exposed the gaps in national, regional and global preparedness and response systems, but also allowed us to identify opportunities to strengthen the international health architecture.
The time to act is now. The world cannot afford to wait until the pandemic is over to start planning for the next one. We must not allow the memories of this crisis to fade and go back to business as usual. The impacts on our societies, economies and health, especially for the poor and the most vulnerable, are too significant. We cannot do things the way we have done them before and expect a different result. We must act boldy.
Without an internationally coordinated, all-of-government, all-of-society, One Health approach to pandemic preparedness and response, we remain vulnerable. It has shown how much we need a universal commitment to basic public health principles as the foundation for our work to prevent, detect and respond to epidemic and pandemic threats.
Definitely the most awkward part of the World Health Organization press conference this morning was the questioning over the omission of public support from Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping for a new international treaty about health emergencies.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus put a brave face on it, saying that the discussions to date had been more on an “opt-in” basis, although regional representatives had been invited.
“When the discussion on the pandemic starts, all member states will be represented,” he said, according to Reuters’ report of the event.
“From the discussions we had, during member states’ sessions, the comment from member states, including the US and China, was actually positive and we hope future engagement will bring all countries.”
David Shearer, who has headed the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan since 2016, has expressed concern over the Covid vaccination programme in the country.
Though South Sudan has secured more than 2 million Covid-19 vaccines it will struggle to get shots into arms as the rainy season approaches, rendering many roads in one of the world’s poorest nations impassable, the outgoing head of the UN mission in the country said.
South Sudan is expected to receive the shots in the coming months through the global vaccine-sharing programme COVAX. But their arrival will coincide with rains that flood many of the only 400 kilometres (250 miles) of paved road in the country. Shearer said vaccines would need to be delivered by river barge.
Nazanine Moshiri and Maggie Fick report for Reuters that the world’s newest nation has recorded only 10,119 infections and 108 deaths from Covid, according to data from Africa’s disease control body, but inadequate testing prevents a clear picture of the pandemic.
Nearly a decade after South Sudan gained independence following a bitter war, the country is grappling with the triple threat of conflict, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, Shearer said. Nearly all the population depends on international food aid, he said, and most basic services such as health and education are provided by the UN and aid groups.
“I don’t see a government looking and taking care of its people,” he said, adding that some of the conflict between ethnic communities could be prevented by “leaders who are looking at serving their people above all rather than necessarily serving themselves”.
Turkey has announced that preclinical trials for an intranasal Covid-19 vaccine have been completed successfully, paving the way for the domestically-produced vaccine to be used in the fight against coronavirus before the end of this year.
The first phase of human trials will begin shortly after remodelling allowing for mutations of the virus, industry and technology minister Mustafa Varank said on Tuesday.
Globally, the vaccine situation has taken a “dire turn” with 100 countries still yet to begin a vaccination programme, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in comments carried by the state news agency. Turkey will share its vaccine “with all humanity”, the president added.
The vaccine news comes just hours after Erdoğan said that the country will have to reverse a normalisation drive that began earlier this month, reinstating weekend lockdowns and closing restaurants, cafes and bars during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which starts 13 April, in order to tackle a worrying surge in cases.
As was the case last year, mass gatherings in tents and communal meals for the pre-dawn and after-dusk meals during the month of fasting will be prohibited. Eateries will be open for take-away and delivery services and the current nationwide curfew between 9pm - 5am will continue, the president said after a cabinet meeting on Monday evening.
Turkey’s caseload has more than doubled since restaurants and other communal spaces were allowed to reopen with reduced capacity at the beginning of March: on Monday the health ministry reported over 32,400 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall tally above 3.24 million.
Fifty-eight of the country’s 81 provinces are now classified as “very high risk”, including Turkey’s cultural and economic capital, Istanbul, which is home to approximately 17 million people.
While Turkey’s total numbers of cases and deaths are still lower than those of many European countries, opposition politicians and healthcare unions have repeatedly accused the government of covering up the virus’ true impact in an effort to bolster the country’s struggling economy.
A mass vaccination drive using China’s SinoVac began in early January. According to official figures, 15.1 million jabs have been administered to date, and 6.6 million people have completed a two-dose course.
Proposed international treaty on pandemics could be taken forward at WHO assembly in May
A proposed international treaty on pandemics could be advanced at the World Health Organization’s annual ministerial assembly in May, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference this morning.
The WHO chief said the treaty would help to tackle gaps exposed by Covid-19, strengthen implementation of international health regulations and also provide a framework cooperation in areas such as pandemic prevention and response.
“The treaty, which could be taken forward by the World Health Assembly, would be based on the WHO constitution including the principles of health for all and no discrimination,” Tedros, adding that it was for WHO member states to determine the content and whether it was ratified, report Reuters
I’ll bring you a sum-up of what Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Charles Michel have discussed at the end of this WHO press conference – but just to note that in the questions from world media there has been some focus on the absence of signatures from the leaders of China, Russia and the United States in the op-ed published supporting a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness and co-operation.
The treaty proposal got the formal backing of the leaders of Fiji, Portugal, Romania, the UK, Rwanda, Kenya, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, Chile, Costa Rica, Albania, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Senegal, Spain, Norway, Serbia, Indonesia, and Ukraine.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and President of the European Council Charles Michel are giving a press conference today which will expand on the idea of a new international deal over pandemic co-operation.
You can watch the video here on the blog right now – you may need to refresh the page for the play button to appear.
WHO chief and president of European council give briefing on pandemic treaty – watch live
The Queensland hospital system was already “stressed” before the latest Covid outbreak partly because everyone with the virus is moved from hotel quarantine into hospital, but not all hospital workers have been vaccinated yet, experts say.
There are now two separate clusters of the infectious UK variant of coronavirus in Brisbane that spread when unvaccinated health workers contracted the virus. The cases have forced Brisbane into a snap three-day lockdown.
The director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services, Associate Prof Paul Griffin, says the vaccine has been given to people who could have waited – leaving high-risk health workers exposed.
“Obviously these [Covid] patients take a lot of effort in terms of managing them in a safe way so I think it has certainly put strain on the healthcare system,” he said. “It’s a very significant event we have found ourselves in, and it has got us all working flat out again, that’s for sure.”
Griffin said he supported the three-day lockdown so that contact tracers could catch up and health authorities could better prepare for what’s to come. He also welcomed increased efforts to vaccinate high-risk healthcare workers.
But he questioned why those workers had not been vaccinated sooner. Griffin received his vaccine two weeks ago, however, many of his hospital colleagues were still waiting for their jabs while treating infectious patients.
“Obviously there are reactive measures like lockdown to reduce transmission that are a priority at the moment, but we need to not lose sight of the goal of getting that vaccine rolled out as quickly as possible,” he said.
New York state residents over 30 will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations starting today, and everyone over 16 will be eligible starting 6 April , embattled state Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday.
A judge’s ruling later in the day widened the eligible pool even further, with a decision saying the state immediately had to offer vaccinations to its entire population of incarcerated people.
Associated Press report that vaccine eligibility had previously been restricted to people over 50, people in certain job categories and those with health conditions that put them at risk for serious illness if they were to become infected with the coronavirus.
Previously, 12.2 million out of over 15 million New Yorkers over the age of 16 were eligible for Covid-19 vaccination as of last week. People over the age of 30 can begin booking appointments at 8am local time this morning.
“Today we take a monumental step forward in the fight to beat Covid” the Democratic party governor said in a news release, adding that the new timetable was “well ahead of the May 1 deadline set by the White House.”
Cuomo has faced calls to resign over allegations of sexual harassment and a scandal about Covid deaths in nursing homes earlier in the padnemic.
In the legal ruling, State Supreme Court Justice Alison Tuitt in the Bronx addressed how all incarcerated New Yorkers were not included in the earlier categories of those eligible, even as those in other group settings were. Tuitt said the state’s decision to exclude incarcerated people from being eligible to get the vaccine “was unquestionably arbitrary and capricious.”
She called it “an unfair and unjust decision” that “was not based in law or fact and was an abuse of discretion.”
