November 8, 2024
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J. Tuyet Nguyen, a journalist with years of experience, has covered major stories in New York City and the United Nations for United Press International, the German Press Agency dpa and various newspapers. His reports focused mostly on topics with international interests for readers worldwide. He was president of the United Nations Correspondents Association (2007 and 2008), which is composed of more than 250 journalists representing world media with influence over policy decision makers. He has chaired the organization of the annual UNCA Awards, which seeks to reward journalists around the world who have done the best broadcasts and written reports on the UN and its specialized agencies. He has traveled the world to cover events and write stories, from politics to the environment as well cultures of different regions. But his most important reporting work has been with the United Nations since the early 1980s. He was bureau chief of United Press International office at the UN headquarters before joining dpa in 1997. Prior to working at the UN, he was an editor on the International Desk of UPI World Headquarters in New York. He worked in Los Angeles and covered the final months of war in Vietnam for UPI.

UN urges united global efforts to defeat pandemic despite US-China dispute

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New York, September 22 – The United Nations urged its member states to show unity and solidarity in order to defeat the virus as it opened the 75th General Assembly session. But the call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was met by the ongoing fight between the United States and China over the handling of the pandemic that has infected over 27 million people and killed over 900,000 this year.

“We must be united,” Guterres said in an address to the 193-nation assembly which has to hold the week-long session virtually because of the deadly virus. Government leaders sent pre-recorded speeches to be broadcast to an assembly hall nearly deserted as each country was represented by just one diplomat.

Guterres said, “As we have seen, when countries go on their own direction, the virus goes in every direction. We must act in solidarity. Far too little assistance has been extended to countries with the fewest capacities to face the challenges.”

He said governments that have used populism and nationalism to fight the virus have

failed and have made the health crisis worse.
“Too often, there has been a disconnect between leadership and power,” he said. “And power is not always associated with the necessary leadership.”

The UN celebrated this year the 75th anniversary of its establishment. But the pandemic has mostly closed its headquarters and canceled its meetings.


US President Donald Trump asked the international organization to hold the Chinese government “accountable for their actions” and for spreading false information through the World Health Organization.

“Seventy-five years after the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, we are once again engaged in a great global struggle,” Trump said.

Politico reported that Trump invoked the “fierce battle” the United States waged against the “invisible enemy, the China Virus.”

“The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions,” he added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the world should expect a repeat of the global health crisis and therefore should join hands in fighting the current pandemic, the Xinhua news agency said.

“COVID-19 reminds us that we are living in an interconnected global village with a common stake,” Xi said in his virtual address to the assembly as reported by Xinhua.

“No country can gain from others’ difficulties or maintain stability by taking advantage of others’ troubles.”

“To pursue a beggar-thy-neighbor policy or just watch from a safe distance when others are in danger will eventually land one in the same trouble faced by others.”

“This is why we should embrace the vision of a community with a shared future in which everyone is bound together.”

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UN: Rich countries secure $10 trillion to fight the virus while fragile, poor countries are struggling with much less resources

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New York, September 9 – Rich countries have adopted economic stimulus packages worth more than $10 trillion to protect their own populations from the coronavirus while the weakest and poorest countries in the world with much less financial resources are those that will be the worst affected by the virus, a United Nations official warned the UN Security Council in a meeting to review the global efforts against the pandemic.

“The G20 and OECD countries have, rightly, adopted domestic economic stimulus measures amounting to more than $10 trillion to protect their own populations from the worst effects of the pandemic and lockdown. That amounts to more than 10 per cent of global income,” said Mark Lowcock, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. He referred to the world’s 20 largest economies and banking institutions and high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

“Low income and fragile countries do not have the resources, capacity or access to markets to do the same thing. So they are reliant on support from elsewhere, especially the international financial institutions.”

Lowcock said of the $143 billion promised by the international financial institutions only 7 per cent so far have been committed to low income countries, representing little more than 2 per cent of their combined GDPs.

“To speak plainly, woefully inadequate economic and political action (to support poor countries) will lead to greater instability and conflicts in the coming years. More crises will be on this Security Council’s agenda,” Lowcock said. “The burden of my advice to you today is that while we may have been surprised by the virus, we cannot say the same of the security and humanitarian crises that most certainly lay ahead if we don’t change course.”

Lowcock began his briefing to the 15-nation council by saying that there are now growing reasons to believe that in the medium and longer term the “weakest, most fragile and conflict-affected countries will be those worst affected by COVID-19.”

“The virus is everywhere,” he said, pointing out that there are now more than 26 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and more than 860,000 deaths with roughly a third of the cases and deaths are in countries affected by humanitarian or refugee crisis or those with high levels of vulnerability.

 The full extent of the pandemic remains unknown while testing levels are very low and those infected by the virus may be reluctant to seek help to avoid being quarantined or they do not trust the medical services offered to them, he said.

The UN has raised around $2.4 billion since March when its first launched an appeal for funds to fight the coronavirus from generous donors and is now seeking $10 billion to cover activities in the coming six months to support 250 million people in 63 countries, Lowcock said.

He said the money already received was meant to assist poor countries as well as to provide personal protective equipment, including masks, gloves and gowns to 730,000 health workers; information on the virus and how to protect yourself from it to more than a billion people in nearly 60 countries; to reach nearly 100 million children with distance learning and provide tens of millions of people with soap, detergent and other improvements to water and sanitation systems.

Lowcock said the indirect effects of Covid-19 are mostly on the global economy but the most fragile economies are hit harder by weakened commodity prices, declining remittances and trade disruptions. Covid-19 also hurt public services, especially health and education across the world but the impacts are harder for poor countries. He said any reduction in the availability of basic health services would hurt poor countries more, citing immunization and food security as two obvious examples.

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UPDATE: UN denounces use of pandemic for unilateral gains and to weaken global response to health crisis

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New York, September 15 – The new leader of the United Nations General Assembly strongly warned that no country can fight the pandemic alone and it is the responsibility of the UN to strengthen the multilateral system to fight the virus that has claimed over 900,000 lives and infected over 27 million people worldwide in less than eight months.

“The pandemic has been used to justify unilateral steps and weaken the rules-based international system” said Volkan Bozkir as he opened the assembly session as its president. “International organizations have been reproached and the need for international cooperation has been questioned. These criticisms are not baseless.  But their conclusions are misguided”.

“Make no mistake: No state can combat this pandemic alone. Social distancing will not help at the international level. Unilateralism will only strengthen the pandemic. It will move us further away from our shared goal. At this time of crisis, it is our responsibility to strengthen people’s faith in multilateral cooperation and international institutions, with the UN at their center.”

For the first time since the UN was established at the end of World War II, the meetings of the UN General Assembly will be held virtually.  Presidents, prime ministers and diplomats of the 193 countries that are UN members will send pre-recorded speeches that will be broadcast to the mostly empty assembly hall which is under strict health measures to prevent infection. 

“Covid-19 has become an overwhelming priority and focus right now,” said Volkan Bozkir, the president of the UN General Assembly president. He urged the assembly to confront Covid-19 through effective multilateral action because it is “testing our institutions like never before. We have a duty to take effective action at the global level to overcome this virus, and the havoc it is wreaking on our economies and societies.”

(UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir, left, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, right)

The UN celebrates this year its 75th anniversary under the theme: “The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism.” 

Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat, said fighting the pandemic is an “overarching priority” and he plans to hold in-person meetings as long as the health conditions would permit because diplomacy requires face-to-face business.

The World Health Organization has asked the assembly and world leaders to give priority to fighting the pandemic and supporting a program named Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT)-Accelerator, which calls for “a unique international collaboration to fast-track the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines globally, while strengthening health systems.”

It said the ACT-Accelerator needs $35 billion to fast-track the development, procurement and distribution of 2 billion vaccine doses, 245 million treatments and 500 million tests over the next year. 

It called also for maintaining the momentum in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals because the pandemic is unravelling decades of progress made to reach the goals, and to prepare for next pandemic “together, now.”

The streets and areas surrounding the UN headquarters in mid-town Manhattan will be mostly silent of presidential motorcades and police sirens. There won’t be the expected traffic jams, closure of streets and protests like in previous falls. The UN headquarters have exercised utmost health restraints imposed by New York State under Covid-19, including social distancing, wearing of facial masks and keeping the staff at 20 per cent of capacity.

The main piece of the annual session known as General Debate will take place September 22-29 during which 196 speakers have registered, most of them presidents and prime ministers, and their pre-recorded speeches will be aired to the empty hall.

The speakers on September 22 will the presidents of Brazil, the United States, Turkey, China, Russia, South Korea, Qatar, the Philippines, Morocco, Iran, France and South Africa.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who will address the 75th session, viewed it as an extended “people’s debate” which “promises to be the largest and furthest-reaching global conversation ever on building the future we want.” 

Despite the pandemic threats and difficulties to perform regularly its annual functions, the UN will hold virtually a number of special high-level meetings during the General Assembly session to discuss topics close to all countries, which include a review of progress to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the unprecedented loss of biodiversity, gender equality and women’s rights and the deadly impacts of coronavirus across the world.

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NEW UPDATE: $35 billion more needed to accelerate treatments, vaccines; end 5,000 daily virus deaths; U.S. not joining vaccine pool

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New York, September 10 – The United Nations and scores of governments called for a “quantum leap in funding” in the amount of $35 billion in order to accelerate the development of tests, treatments and vaccines that would prevent the current 5,000 Covid-19 daily deaths around the world.

The UN, the World Health Organization and more than 30 presidents and government ministers called for funding the ACT-Accelerator, a program that aims at speeding up efforts to end the pandemic through development, delivery of tests, treatments and equitable allocation of vaccines and foster the quick return of societies and economies. The program was launched in April by the WHO, the European Union, France and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and it has already delivered substantial work to fight the pandemic.

 “We now need $35 billion more to go from set-up to scale and impact,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “There is a real urgency in these numbers. Without an infusion of US$15 billion over the next 3 months, beginning immediately, we will lose the window of opportunity”.

He was joined by Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa and Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, who co-chair the ACT-Acceleration Facilitation Council

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “Nearly 5,000 lives are lost each day due to COVID-19 and the global economy is expected to contract by trillions of dollars this year. The case for investing to end the pandemic has never been stronger.”

 WHO said the ACT-Accelerator ensures equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics but it at present is facing a financing gap of $35 billion. “Fully financing the ACT-Accelerator would shorten the pandemic and pay back this investment rapidly as the global economy recovers,” it said.

The United States has decided not to join a WHO-led global program that will allow countries to have equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, raising the prospect that rich countries may acquire large doses of the shots for their own people at the expense of developing and poor countries.

A total of 172 countries are now engaged in discussion with COVAX, a global initiative that works with vaccine manufacturers to provide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines once they are licensed and approved to all countries that have signed up with the partnership, the World Health Organization said in late August.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, vaccine and therapeutic research, development, and trials have advanced at unprecedented speed to deliver groundbreaking, effective medicines driven by data and safety and not held back by government red tape,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said on September 1.

 “The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.” 

“This President will spare no expense to ensure that any new vaccine maintains our own FDA’s gold standard for safety and efficacy, is thoroughly tested, and saves lives,” Deere said.

The US has decided to leave the World Health Organization, which will become effective next July.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States, the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom have agreed to purchase at least 3.7 billion doses from Western companies developing Covid-19 vaccines apparently for their own uses.

China and India, the world’s most populous nations which also have their own giant vaccine-making industries, are expected to reserve the vaccines for their own people.

Public health experts warned the US decision may harm global efforts to control the pandemic.

“Equal access to a COVID-19 vaccine is the key to beating the virus and paving the way for recovery from the pandemic,” said Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven when COVAX was launched. “This cannot be a race with a few winners, and the COVAX Facility is an important part of the solution – making sure all countries can benefit from access to the world’s largest portfolio of candidates and fair and equitable distribution of vaccine doses.”

WHO said COVAX has the world’s largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio – including nine candidate vaccines, with a further nine under evaluation and conversations underway with other major producers. Its success depends on countries signing up to the COVAX Facility as well as filling key funding gaps for both COVAX R&D work and a mechanism to support participation of lower-income economies in the COVAX Facility.

“COVID-19 is an unprecedented global health challenge that can only be met with unprecedented cooperation between governments, researchers, manufacturers and multilateral partners,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “By pooling resources and acting in solidarity through the ACT Accelerator and the COVAX Facility, we can ensure that once a vaccine is available for COVID-19, it’s available equitably to all countries.”

Of the 172 governments that have signed up with the partnership, 80 have higher-income economies and will finance the vaccines using their own public finance budgets and have so far submitted Expressions of Interests in the partnership and the other 92 are low- and middle-income countries. Together the group of 172 countries represents more than 70 per cent of the world’s population from all five continents and more than half of the  world’s G20 economies.

WHO said COVAX’s goal is to deliver by the end of 2021 two billion doses of safe, effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and/or WHO prequalification.

 “These vaccines will be offered equally to all participating countries, proportional to their populations, initially prioritising healthcare workers then expanding to cover vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions,” WHO said. “Further doses will then be made available based on country need, vulnerability and COVID-19 threat. The COVAX Facility will also maintain a buffer of doses for emergency and humanitarian use, including dealing with severe outbreaks before they spiral out of control.”

The list of nine candidate vaccines is as follows:

·         Inovio, USA (Phase I/II)

·         Moderna, USA (Phase III)

·         CureVac, Germany (Phase I)

·         Institut Pasteur/Merck/Themis, France/USA/Austria (Preclinical)

·         AstraZeneca/University of Oxford, UK (Phase III)

·         University of Hong Kong, China (Preclinical)

·         Novavax, USA (Phase I/II)

·         Clover Biopharmaceuticals, China (Phase I)

·         University of Queensland/CSL, Australia (Phase I)

WHO provided the list of countries that have joined or engaged in talks to join COVAX:

The 80 countries that have submitted expressions of interest to the Gavi-coordinated COVAX Facility include 43 that have agreed to be publicly named: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, Venezuela.

In July the Gavi Board agreed on the 92 economies that will be supported the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). The full list is as follows:

·         Low income: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Dem. Rep., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, The Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Korea, Dem. People’s Rep., Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Yemen, Rep.,

·         Lower-middle income: Angola, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Rep. Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Arab Rep., El Salvador, Eswatini, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyz Republic Lao PDR, Lesotho, Mauritania, Micronesia, Fed. Sts., Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza, Zambia, Zimbabwe

·         Additional IDA eligible: Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Kosovo, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Samoa, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, Tuvalu.

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NEW UPDATE: $35 billion more needed to accelerate treatments, vaccines; end 5,000 daily virus deaths; U.S. not joining vaccine pool Read More »

UN: Women deserve equal status in society as they battle Covid-19 at the frontlines

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New York, August 31 – Between 70 and 90 per cent of healthcare workers battling the pandemic are women but their salary and working conditions are inferior to those enjoyed by their male counterparts, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in defense of the contribution made by women and girls while Covid-19 cases and deaths remain high around the world,

Guterres cited some glaring unequal working conditions like Personal Protective Equipment that don’t fit women because they are mostly made to fit a man standard and thus may result in causing more infection to women. He said fewer than 30 percent of decision-making positions in the health sector are occupied by women and in the broader economy women around the world are employed informally.

“Many (women) have been thrown into financial insecurity by the pandemic, without regular income and lacking any social safety net,” Guterres told a virtual townhall meeting with young women from civil society organizations on the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women.

“The Covid-19 is deepening existing inequalities, including gender inequality. Already we are seeing a reversal in decades of limited and fragile progress on gender equality and women’s rights. And without a concerted response, we risk losing a generation or more of gains.”

 “The pandemic has exposed the crisis in unpaid care work, which has increased exponentially as a result of school closures and the needs of older people and falls disproportionately on women.” 

“Before the start of the pandemic it was clear that care work – unpaid in the home and underpaid in the formal economy – has long been a contributing factor to gender equality. 

Now, the pandemic has exposed the extent of its impact on physical and mental health, education and labor force participation.” 

Guterres said the United Nations has made it a top priority to protect the rights of women and girls under the current circumstances and has issued a policy brief in April urging governments to take concrete action to put them – “their inclusion, representation, rights, social and economic outcomes and protection – at the centre of all efforts to tackle and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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UN: Virus clobbers global tourism, millions of jobs at risk, Asia-Pacific hit hard

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New York, August 25 – Lockdowns and border closures across the world to contain the spread of coronavirus had resulted in the loss of 300 million tourist arrivals and $320 billion in receipts in the first five months of 2020 and the economic losses for the whole year could surpass $1 trillion unless governments reopen their borders, the UN World Tourism Organization said in a survey on the Covid-19 impacts on one of the world’s most lucrative industries.

While it is calling for the return of tourism in an effort to revive local economies, particularly in the least developed countries that depend much on international tourism for their development, the WTO said such a decision should be taken only if Covid-19 cases and deaths are declining.

“The crisis is an opportunity to rethink how tourism interacts with our societies, other economic sectors and our natural resources; to measure and manage it better; to ensure a fair distribution of its benefits and to advance the transition towards a carbon neutral and resilient tourism economy,” said a policy brief issued by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The UN chief joined WTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili in reviewing the state of global tourism under the pandemic.

Surveys made by WTO showed that lockdowns imposed in response to the pandemic resulted in a 97-per cent fall of international tourist arrivals by May 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019.

From January to May 2020, the surveys said Asia-Pacific suffered a 60-percent fall in tourist arrivals; 58 percent in Europe; 52 percent in the Middle East; 47 percent in the Americas and 47 percent in Africa.

The policy brief provided scenarios on the pandemic’s economic impacts painting a grim picture of tourism in 2020. It said international tourist numbers could decline by 58 per cent to 78 per cent in 2020, which could translate into a sharp drop in visitor spending from $1.5 trillion in 2019 to between $310 billion and $570 billion in 2020. 

It said as many as 100 million direct tourism jobs are at risk because of the sharp decline in global tourism. In addition, global tourism’s labor-intensive hotels and food services employ some 144 million people, who will be also affected by the decline. Women make up about 54 percent of the total workers in tourism.

Tourism represented 20 percent of gross domestic products (GDP) in some developing countries. But for Small Island Development States (SIDS), tourism accounted for up to 80 percent of incomes.

The policy brief said the fall of international tourism and related revenues have cut off funding for biodiversity conservation, including wildlife, resulting in a rise in poaching, looting and consumption of bushmeat. Other programs that depended on tourism like cultural activities, festivals and handicraft products and goods are also affected.

“As countries gradually lift travel restrictions and tourism slowly restarts in many parts of the world, health continues to be a priority and coordinated health protocols that protect workers, communities and travellers, while supporting companies and workers, must be firmly in place,” the brief said.

Pololikashvili said before the policy brief was launched that it is important to restart tourism “as soon as it is safe to do so.”

“The dramatic fall in international tourism places many millions of livelihoods at risk, including in developing countries. Governments in every world region have a dual responsibility: to prioritize public health while also protecting jobs and businesses. They also need to maintain the spirit of cooperation and solidarity that has defined our response to this shared challenge and refrain from making unilateral decisions that may undermine the trust and confidence we have been working so hard to build.”

 

 

 

Responsible restart is possible

 “The restart of tourism can be undertaken responsibly and in a way that safeguards public health while also supporting businesses and livelihoods,” Pololikashvili said.

“As destinations continue to ease restrictions on travel, international cooperation is of paramount importance. This way, global tourism can gain people’s trust and confidence, essential foundations as we work together to adapt to the new reality we now face.”

Tourism is slowly returning, more than 80 destinations lifted travel bans, but confidence is low

WTO noted, however, that there have been attempts to revive tourism in many countries but they have been gradual and cautious, particularly in the Schengen Zone of the European Union starting in July. By the end of July more than 80 destinations, including 20 small islands, have eased travel restrictions and it can be confirmed that the reopening is slow but in a continuous adaptation and responsible manner.

WTO warned that confidence in the tourist revival has dropped to record lows because of the ongoing pandemic when it evaluated tourism during the period of January-May 2020 and prospects for the May-August this year.

“Most members of the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts expect international tourism to recover by the second half of 2021, followed by those who expect a rebound in the first part of next year,” WTO said. adding that the experts 

It said the group of global experts reminded that a series of downside risks still remain in place such as travel restrictions and border shutdowns in most destinations. It said travels between many countries are still clamped down, including between the United States and China, and by other reasons like safety concerns, the resurgence of Covid-19 and risks of new lockdowns. 

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Coronavirus pandemic locks over 1 billion students out of schools in 160 countries, UN chief says

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New York, August 4 – The unrelenting deadly impacts of the pandemic has closed schools in more than 160 countries, affecting over 1 billion students and has led to the “largest disruption of education ever,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a new policy brief as governments around the world have been struggling to set the schedule for reopening schools.

“We are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people,” Guterres said. “We already faced a learning crisis before the pandemic. More than 250 million school-age children were out of school and only a quarter of secondary school children in developing countries were leaving school with basic skills.”

“Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” he said.

The UN chief called for (1) reopening schools “once local transmissions of the virus known as Covid-19 is under control”; (2) prioritizing education in financing decisions; (3) targeting the hardest to reach and (4) the future of education is here.

“It will be essential to balance health risks against risks to children’s education and protection, and to factor in the impact on women’s labour force participation,” he said. “Consultation with parents, careers, teachers and young people is fundamental.”

Guterres said the policy brief on Education during Covid-19 and Beyond was launched together with a new campaign with education partners and United Nations agencies called ‘Save our Future’.

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WHO rejects “vaccine nationalism”, urges fair allocations of Covid-19 vaccine

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New York, August 18 – While giant pharmaceutical companies are competing to produce anti-Covid-19 vaccines, the World Health Organization called for an “equitable access and fair allocation” of the medicine to all those stricken by the virus around the world.

“We need to prevent vaccine nationalism,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a direct rebuke to the possible grab of the vaccines by any governments for their own people at the expenses of others.

“And for this reason, WHO is working with governments and the private sector to both accelerate the science, through the ACT-Accelerator, and ensure that new innovations are available to everyone, everywhere starting with those at highest risk.

“Since May, WHO has been in extensive consultations to develop a new framework to guide fair and equitable access to diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, for Covid-19 across all countries. These cross-cutting principles are key to the promotion of equitable access and fair allocation of these essential health products for the greatest impact globally.”

He said the allocation of vaccines will take place in two phases: (1) doses will be allocated proportionally to all participating countries simultaneously to reduce overall risk, which would cover the 20 percent of population most affected by Covid-19 in each country, and (2) doses will be allocated to individual countries depending on threat and vulnerability level. 

Front line workers in health and social care settings will have priority access to the vaccines  “as they are essential to treat and protect the population and come in close contact with high-mortality risk groups.” WHO said.

WHO urges governments to join COVAX Global Vaccines Facility, which is the mechanism for “joint procurement and pooling risk across multiple vaccines”, by August 31.

The possibility that some governments may monopolize vaccines has prompted Pope Francis to issue a statement at Vatican City supporting a fair distribution of vaccines to all those who need them.

“The pandemic is a crisis. You don’t come out of it the same — either better or worse,” Francis said. “We must come out better.”

“How sad it would be if for the Covid-19 vaccine priority is given to the richest,” he said.

“The pandemic has laid bare the difficult situation of the poor and the great inequality that reigns in the world,” the pope said.

“And the virus, while it doesn’t make exceptions among persons, has found in its path, devastating, great inequalities and discrimination,” Francis said, adding “and it has increased them”.

Infection cases and deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic have continued to rise in what the World Health Organization (WHO) described as a once-in-a-century health crisis and warned that its destructive impacts will be felt for decades to come.

Total as of 15 August 2020.

Globally: 21,026,758 cases; 755,786 deaths

 Africa: 936,062 cases; 18,286 deaths 

 Americas: 11,271,215 cases; 410,483 deaths

Eastern Mediterranean: 1,710,272 cases; 45,361 deaths

Europe: 3,733,965 cases; 213,674 deaths


South-East Asia: 2,971,104 cases; 58,844 deaths

 Western Pacific: 403,399 cases; 9,125 deaths

Please follow this link for the daily situation report for COVID-19

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200815-covid-19-sitrep-208.pdf?sfvrsn=9dc4e959_2


“The pandemic is a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Many countries that believed they were past the worst are now grappling with new outbreaks. Some that were less affected in the earliest weeks are now seeing escalating numbers of cases and deaths. And some that had large outbreaks have brought them under control.”
The WHO chief made the remarks in a meeting of The Emergency Committee on COVID-19 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on July 31 as the total worldwide confirmed cases of infections reached 17,396,943 and 675,060 deaths.
The committee expressed in a statement its “appreciation for WHO and partners’ COVID-19 pandemic response efforts, and highlighted the anticipated lengthy duration of this COVID-19 pandemic, noting the importance of sustained community, national, regional, and global response efforts.”
The committee unanimously agreed following discussion and a review of evidence that the outbreak still constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). It issued a range of recommendations to both WHO and member states and pledged support to maintain health services while accelerating the research and eventual access to diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. Countries are urged to strengthen public health surveillance for case identification and contact tracing, including in low-resource, vulnerable, or high-risk settings and to maintain essential health services with sufficient funding, supplies, and human resources. Countries are advised to implement proportionate measures and advice on travel, based on risk assessments, and to review these measures regularly.
The committee’s statement, with further details of the meeting and their recommendations, is available here.


As of August 1, 2020, World total Covid-19 deaths: 675,060; confirmed cases of infection: 17,396,943.


Confirmed cases of infection:
Americas: 9,220,330
Europe: 3,357,465
Southeast Asia: 2,072,194
Eastern Mediterranean: 1,544,950
Africa: 788,448
Western Pacific: 312,771.

WHO rejects “vaccine nationalism”, urges fair allocations of Covid-19 vaccine Read More »

UN sets strict rules for annual meetings; blames Covid-19 for reinforcing inequalities

Leave a Comment / Climate, Environment, Health, News feature /

By J. Tuyet Nguyen


New York – The United Nations was supposed to mark its 75th anniversary this year with an elaborate forward looking program for more achievements and a brighter future. But it found instead that the coronavirus pandemic has mostly gutted progress made in areas like living standards and has worsened social injustice.

The UN was established on June 26, 1945 when victorious World War II allies and scores of governments signed the UN Charter in San Francisco.

The pandemic has severely upended scheduled UN meetings, one of which is the important annual UN General Assembly session taking place in September. Under normal times in the past 74 years the sessions were attended scrupulously by presidents, ministers and leaders of international organizations at UN headquarters in New York, packing the assembly hall that can have 2,000 delegates.

But the UN has told presidents and prime ministers to stay home this year when the session opens on September 21st. Each of the 193 countries that are UN members can send only one or if possible two delegates rather than a delegation of more than a dozen officials. All meetings will be held virtually, with pre-recorded speeches aired in a mostly empty General Assembly. Attendees will have to wear facial masks and keep social distancing.

“We have been brought to our knees – by a microscopic virus,” UN Secretary General Antonio said in a speech delivered remotely on July 18 to the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was titled “Tackling the inequality pandemic: A new social contract for a new era.”

“The pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of our world. It has laid bare risks we have ignored for decades: inadequate health systems; gaps in social protection; structural inequalities; environment degradation; the climate crisis.”

He said progress made in eradicating poverty and narrowing inequality have been set back years “in a matter of months,” warning that some 100 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty because of the pandemic.

“The virus poses the greatest risk to the most vulnerable: those living in poverty, elder people and people with disabilities and pre-existing conditions,” he said, adding that coronavirus has shone the light on inequalities.

“Covid-19 has been likened to an X-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built.”

“Because while we are all floating on the same sea, it’s clear that some are in super yachts while others are clinging to floating debris,” he said.

Latin America and the Caribbean

A policy brief on Latin America and the Caribbean issued by Guterres said the region has become a hotspot of the pandemic while it is torn with “profound inequalities” because of high levels of informal labor and fragmented health services. The brief said that the region will suffer a 9.1-percent contraction in gross domestic product (GDP), the largest in a century.

“The social impacts of pandemic will be felt acutely, with sharp rise in unemployment, poverty, extreme poverty and inequality,” it said.

The region, which has a total population of 230 million, will have more than 44 million unemployed people under the pandemic, 45 million people will live in poverty and 28 million in extreme poverty.
The brief said people disproportionately affected by the pandemic are indigenous and those of African descent because they live in “worse economic conditions and have limited access to social protection compared to the rest of the population, in addition to high levels of discrimination in the labour market.”

Pandemic disrupts 15-year UN Sustainable Development Goals

In another study issued in July the UN said its 15-year global efforts to improve the lives of people everywhere under the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were disrupted by the fast spreading coronavirus within a few months in the first part of 2020

The study said progress had been made to advance the goals even though it was not even and sufficient in areas such as improving maternal and child health, increasing women’s representation in government and access to electricity in developing countries.

“As Member States recognized at the SDG Summit held last September, global efforts to date have been insufficient to deliver the change we need, jeopardizing the agenda’s promise to current and future generations,” Guterres said. “Now, due to COVID-19, an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis is threatening lives and livelihoods, making the achievement of goals even more challenging.”

Other findings in the study said the over 1 billion people living in slums around the world are vulnerable to Covid-19 because of the lack of water, housing, shared toilets, crowded space and limited access to health care facilities.
It said women and children are among those suffering the most from the pandemic due to the disruption of health and vaccination services. School closure has kept 90 percent of the 1.57 billion students worldwide out of schools, causing millions of them to miss out school meals they depended on and health services provided schools.


Adopted in 2015, the SDGs targeted 17 goals to be achieved by 2030 with ending poverty at the top of the list. It is followed by hunger, maternal and child mortality, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, decent work, reduction of inequalities, sustainable cities and responsible consumption.

UN sets strict rules for annual meetings; blames Covid-19 for reinforcing inequalities Read More »

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