WHO

Beyond social strife, the pandemic has been punishing economically, in particular for sectors like travel.

Fully-immunised people must stick with measures to avoid catching the virus and passing it on

The WHO wants a moratorium on boosters until the end of the year to free up jabs for poorer nations.

It added that WHO's leadership was aware of sex abuse allegations a full six weeks earlier than it initially claimed.

The Cuban vaccines, the first developed in Latin America, have not undergone international, scientific peer review.

The WHO currently identifies four Covid-19 variants of concern, including Alpha, which is present in 193 countries, and Delta, present in 170 countries.

Only six percent of people in lower and lower-middle income countries in Europe are fully vaccinated

Beijing has especially bridled at the suggestion that the virus might have escaped from the Wuhan virology lab.

A government tally reported 808 fatalities over the past 24 hours -- the first time Russia has crossed the 800-mark for daily virus deaths.

Previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The surge in cases across America has left the early vaccine adopters angry at those who have so far opted against the jab.

The new mechanism will allow those countries to buy additional doses on top of the subsidised ones they will already receive via Covax.

The WHO was only able to send a team of independent, international experts to Wuhan in January, more than a year after Covid-19 first surfaced there.

Overall, coronavirus-linked deaths in Africa surged by 43 percent in the space of week

The WHO has been trying to come up with simplified new nomenclature for the variants for several months.

There are more than 70 issues on the WHA agenda, including antimicrobial resistance and patient safety.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking with Payne, renewed US criticism of the original WHO investigation.

The World Health Organization and the EU's health watchdog have both deemed the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, but several countries have restricted its use over blood clotting fears.

Some 145 economies participating in Covax are set to receive enough doses to immunise 3.3 percent of their collective population by mid-2021.

Governments are pinning their hopes on vaccines to end a pandemic that has killed more than 2.4 million people, but some rollouts are continuing to attract controversy.

However, the AstraZeneca jab first needs emergency use authorisation from the WHO, which is set to make a decision next week.

Despite the vaccine rollouts -- more than 136.5 million people have received jabs around the world so far.

Europe is still the worst-affected region, with more than 760,000 deaths.

A WHO team finally started work on its investigation in recent days after months of delays, with the experts visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization has previously advised against the vaccination of pregnant women using the Moderna vaccine.

According to official Chinese figures the virus killed nearly 3,900 in Wuhan, accounting for the vast majority of the 4,636 dead China has reported.

The 10-strong team is expected to arrive Thursday in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus was first detected in late 2019.

WHO said its emergency use listing opens the way for regulators in different countries to approve the import and distribution of the vaccine.

WHO revealed that the new coronavirus strain that appeared in the UK seems to be more infectious than the prevailing strain.

A WHO official stated that the epidemic is widespread and it is shocking to see it in a country with a wonderful and strong health system.