Edited News , Press Conferences | WHO , UNOG , UNITED NATIONS
European COVID infections indicate ‘east-west divide’: WHO
Europe is seeing a “steady” decline in COVID-19 infections, although the generally positive trend has not happened in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe, the UN health agency said on Tuesday.
“In Western Europe we are seeing a steady decline – it’s not speedy – but there’s a steady decline in new cases being reported daily,” said Dr Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Speaking via videoconference from WHO headquarters in Geneva, she added that although the level of new cases remained “significant”, the numbers reported “are coming down – except for Russia and Eastern Europe, we are still seeing the rise. So, it’s more an east-west picture in Europe.”
According to latest WHO data, Russia has identified 414,878 cases of infection with 4,855 deaths.
Asked about the significance of results from Wuhan city in China where authorities have just finished testing nearly 10 million people for infection, finding only 300 mainly asymptomatic cases, the WHO spokesperson insisted that much more research needed to be carried out globally to put this data into context.
“A big study like that gives you a little piece of the puzzle, gives you a little bit of information. But it may be related to a setting, there’s much more work that needs to be done around the world,” Dr Harris said.
Earlier this year, a WHO-led international mission to China and Wuhan – where the virus emerged last December - suggested that while asymptomatic transmission might play a part in spreading the disease, it did not appear to be not be the main “driver” of the outbreak, Dr Harris explained.
To date, China has reported 83,022 infections and 4,645 deaths, according to WHO.
“It was clear from the mission that returned from China, they said at the time that they did not think that asymptomatic - people who are asymptomatic - were significant drivers of the virus,” she said, referring to people who displayed no symptoms of the disease. “Now there have been different opinions on that and we really won’t have an answer until we have got that kind of data from around the world.”
Globally, on 2 June 2020, WHO reported more than six million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 373,548 deaths.
The Americas is the epicentre by region, with more than 2.8 million cases, followed by Europe (2.2 million), Eastern Mediterranean (536,148), South-East Asia (272,512), Western Pacific (184,305) and Africa (108,121).
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Edited News | WHO
Time is running out for starving civilians in Sudan, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday, while talks involving the country’s warring parties continue in Geneva this week.
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Press Conferences | WHO , WMO , ILO
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Edited News | WHO
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Press Conferences | UNCTAD
Publication of the Digital Economy Report 2024: Shaping an environmentally sustainable and inclusive digital future
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Edited News | UNRWA
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
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Edited News | WHO
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Press Conferences | OHCHR , WHO , OCHA , UNHCR , WFP
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chairs a hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR).
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Edited News | OCHA , WMO , IFRC
Hurricane Beryl smashes into Caribbean, turns sights on Mexico As Hurricane Beryl’s destructive path shifted to Mexico on Friday after roiling the Caribbean, UN agencies and partners said that the emergency response was underway, before warning that a very long and damaging hurricane season looks increasingly likely.
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Press Conferences | FAO , IFRC , OCHA , WHO
Rolando Gómez of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Meteorological Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization.
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Edited News | IOM , mcc , UNHCR
Refugees and migrants continue to face extreme forms of violence, exploitation and death on sea and on land across Africa as they attempt to leave the continent, UN agencies said on Friday, in an appeal to border authorities to do more to protect them.