Tag: World Health Organisation (WHO)

How the Climate Crisis Is Affecting Elite Sport

The air is thick at the Cricket World Cup in India. Extreme smog is causing problems for athletes and fans. Environmental issues are affecting elite sport more and more.

The view from the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the heart of Delhi is milky. On the field, Bangladesh are on their way to beating Sri Lanka at the Cricket World Cup, but these players are not to be envied. The air quality is so bad that training sessions before the match had been cancelled. The air quality index in Delhi has been moving between ‘unhealthy’ and ‘hazardous’ in recent days, so much so that outdoor activities are not currently recommended because of possible health issues.

A blow for India’s Olympic hopes

Smog is the result of pollution from power plants, vehicles and other sources reacting in sunlight and heat. It is both aggravated by and contributes to the rising temperatures that accompany climate change.

The cricket stars currently in India are having to contend with this, breathing in particularly harmful particulate matter – the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air.

Some of these particles are so small they can get deep into your lungs, some even into your bloodstream. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health and in Delhi the current PM2.5 reading is 184 micrograms per cubic meter, 12 times the limit set by the World Health Organisation.

With air purifiers in the dressing rooms and water misting alongside the pitch, the organisers are trying to alleviate the problems at the World Cup matches.

“In an ideal world, you don’t want a situation like this,” India captain Rohit Sharma said. “But I’m pretty sure the concerned people are taking the necessary steps to avoid these kind of situations. It’s not ideal, everyone knows that.”

The problems at the Cricket World Cup are also not good news for India’s image as an up-and-coming sporting nation that wants to host the 2036 Olympic Games. The images of a smog-ridden Delhi certainly don’t help that cause.

Heat, smog, artificial snow

It’s becoming increasingly common to see elite sport affected by environmental and climate changes, the author David Goldblatt told DW.

“The Australian Open, which was played in a heatwave, you had like a thousand people being treated for heat issues,” Goldblatt said. “As you know, Tokyo 2020, we had outdoor swimmers swimming in really health-threatening 30-degree (86 F) water. One of these events is going to be cataclysmic.”

Goldblatt is the co-founder of Football for Future, an organisation that challenges football’s stakeholders to respond to the changing world. He believes that sport will have to change, replacing relentless growth with reduction.

“The bigger question is really over the next kind of 20 years; global sport as a whole and domestic sports have got to think very, very hard about: Can we keep growing? Maybe we need to actually do less,” Goldblatt said.

The battle between more and less is currently most apparent in skiing, the sport that has perhaps been the most affected by the climate crisis. While the the sport’s international governing body seeks to expand the current World Cup calendar, criticism is growing louder.

“We cannot deny climate change and must adapt,” said Christian Scherer, the general secretary of Austria’s skiing association.

Factors such as snow safety and sustainability efforts such as using existing facilities will play a central role in the future when awarding major events to locations. The same applies to heat conditions and air quality as is now the case in India.

2030 World Cup: ‘Symbolically insane’

Sport is not just a victim of the climate crisis. From amateur athletes getting in the car several times a week for training and competitions to major events such as the Olympics, sport is also an offender when it comes to the environment.

“It’s symbolically insane,” Goldblatt said of the 2030 World Cup. As a football fan, he sympathises with opening the tournament in Uruguay, but said a tournament with 105 matches on three continents, with tens of thousands of fans traveling back and forth, was a farce from an environmental point of view. Although sports associations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA are making efforts to label their events as “climate-friendly” or even “climate-neutral” by paying for CO2 compensation programs, Goldblatt said, this is “not a plausible plan.”

Ironically, both FIFA and the IOC have committed to more climate protection as part of the World Climate Conference. The declared goal of the sports action plan: Greenhouse gas emissions are to be halved by 2030 and reduced to zero by 2040. Further talks are scheduled for the upcoming COP 28 world climate summit in Dubai at the end of November.

More voices needed

Cricket’s governing body has not yet signed up to the UN’s action plan but has set its own sustainability goals. The smog-ridden World Cup shows how necessary it is for sport to be a role model in environmental protection. Prominent voices from sport itself are therefore needed, Goldblatt said.

“We need a Marcus Rashford,” he said. “We need all of those folks, men and women in football and in cricket. Where is the Indian cricketer who’s going to stand up? And they would have a major voice in Indian politics.”

There are athletes who have stood up. Australia’s cricket captain, Pat Cummins, has been vocal about the climate impact on cricket and worked with Australian cricket to ensure that the association is doing its part for the climate. Otherwise, Cummins said, it’ll soon be “game over for the sport we love.”

This story was originally published on DW.

New COVID-19 Omicron Sub-Variant BA.2.75 Detected in Countries Like India: WHO

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organisation is following the development.

United Nations/Geneva: A new sub-lineage BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in countries like India and the World Health Organisation is following this, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

On COVID-19, “globally reported cases have increased nearly 30% over the past two weeks. Four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week”, Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing on July 6, 2022.

“In Europe and America, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves. In countries like India a new sub-lineage of BA.2.75 has also been detected, which we’re following”, he said.

On the emergence of the potential Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a video posted on Twitter that there has been an emergence of a sub-variant that is being called the BA.2.75 first reported from India and then from about 10 other countries.

She said, “there are still limited sequences available of the sub-variant to analyse, but this sub-variant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein. So obviously, that’s a key part of the virus that attaches itself to the human receptor. So we have to watch that. It’s still too early to know if this sub-variant has properties of additional immune evasion or indeed of being more clinically severe. We don’t know that. So we have to wait and see,” adding that WHO is tracking it and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is constantly looking at the data from around the world.

She further stated, “And at any time if there is an emergence of a virus that looks very different from a previous one, enough to be called a separate variant of concern, then the committee will do that.”

The WHO weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19, released on July 6,2022,  said that globally, the number of new weekly cases increased for the fourth consecutive week after a declining trend since the last peak in March 2022. During the week of June 27 to July 3, 2022, over 4.6 million cases were reported, a figure similar to that of the previous week. The number of new weekly deaths declined by 12% as compared to the previous week, with over 8100 fatalities reported.

As of July 3, 2022, over 546 million confirmed COVID19 cases and over 6.3 million deaths had been reported globally. The COVID update said that among Omicron lineages, the proportions of BA.5 and BA.4 continue to increase. BA.5 has been detected in 83 countries. Although BA.4, which has been detected in 73 countries, is also rising globally, the rate of increase is not as high as that of BA.5.

The South-East Asia Region has been reporting an increasing trend in cases since early June, with over 157,000 new cases reported, a 20% increase as compared to the previous week. Five of 10 countries (50% ) for which data are available showed increases in the number of new cases of 20% or greater, with the greatest proportional increases observed in Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (112,456 new cases, an increase of 21%), Thailand (15,950, an increase of 6%) and Bangladesh (13,516 new cases, a 53%  increase).

The number of new weekly deaths in the region increased by 16% as compared to the previous week, with over 350 new deaths reported. The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (200 new deaths, a 39% increase), Thailand (108 new deaths, a decline of 14%), and Indonesia (32 new deaths, an increase of 7%).

WHO Incident Manager COVID-19 Abdi Mahamud said that now is not the time to declare that the pandemic is over. “We’re still in the midst of the pandemic and the virus has a lot of force left. So whether it is the BA.4 or BA.5 or BA.2.75, the virus will continue. It does what it does good”, he said, adding that people and communities must continue to wear masks, avoid crowds and ensure that the most vulnerable and high-risk population is protected.

Ghebreyesus said, “Compounding the COVID-19 challenge are a number of factors, including that testing has reduced dramatically in many countries. This obscures the true picture of an evolving virus and the real burden of COVID-19 disease globally. It also means that treatments are not given early enough to prevent serious illness and/or death.  Secondly, new treatments, especially promising new oral antivirals, are still not reaching low- and low-middle income countries, depriving whole populations that need them.

Further, as the virus evolves, vaccine protection while still really effective at preventing serious disease and death does wane. Decreasing immunity underscores the importance of boosters, especially for the most at-risk, the WHO chief said adding that each wave of the virus leaves more people with the long-COVID or post-COVID condition. This obviously impacts individuals and their families but it also puts an extra burden on health systems, the wider economy and society-at-large. These challenges require action at a global, national and local level.”

(PTI)

Kerala HC: Union Govt’s Vaccination Scheme Has Created 2 Classes of Citizens in India

The government’s vaccination scheme has created two classes of citizens in India — those who got Covaxin, whose movements are restricted, and those who received Covishield and can go anywhere.

Kochi:  The Kerala high court said on Tuesday that the Centre’s vaccination scheme has created two classes of citizens in India — those who got Covaxin, whose movements are restricted, and those who received Covishield and can go anywhere.

These observations were made by Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan during the hearing of a man’s plea for a third jab of an internationally recognised vaccine so that he can go abroad for work.

The man, who was working as a welder in Saudi Arabia, moved the court for a third jab as the two doses of Covaxin he has received is not recognised or approved in the Gulf nation and therefore, he stands to lose his job there as he cannot go there without being vaccinated by an internationally recognised vaccine.

Also read: ‘Vaccinated But Stuck’: Indians Await WHO Nod For Covaxin Shot To Travel Abroad

“Due to the state-sponsored vaccination scheme, there are two types of citizens in the country — those who received Covaxin and those who got Covishield. The former’s movement is restricted, while the latter can go anywhere,” the court said.

It said the creation of two classes of citizens has resulted in “infringement of the fundamental right of movement of the petitioner”.

“His movement is restricted. A citizen is suffering due to a state-sponsored vaccination scheme. It is a clear case of infringement of the fundamental rights of the petitioner,” the court observed.

The judge said he will not order as to whether a third jab be administered to the petitioner, but will direct the Union government to redress his grievance within one month.

The court listed the matter for hearing on November 5, when the Union government is expected to respond on the view expressed by the judge.

During the hearing, the Union government told the court that a similar matter was pending before the Supreme Court which said it will wait for the World Health Organisation (WHO) decision on the issue.

The court said if the Union government wants to take more time to make a decision, a direction can be issued to pay the petitioner the amount he was receiving as salary when working abroad.

“The court cannot sit like a mere spectator,” the judge said.

The Union government had in August said that clinical trials were underway to ascertain efficacy of administering a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and it will take several months to complete.

(PTI)

‘Vaccinated But Stuck’: Indians Await WHO Nod For Covaxin Shot To Travel Abroad

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that its independent experts had sought ‘additional clarifications’ from Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech for a final assessment on November 3.

Pandalam: Stuck in a village in southern India for nine months and unable to return to his job in Saudi Arabia, Sugathan P.R. is hoping the World Health Organization (WHO) will approve the Indian COVID-19 shot Covaxin, paving the way for his trip back.

Like Sugathan, millions of Indians have taken Covaxin and many have complained of travel struggles as the vaccine has not been recognised for international travel by several countries.

“I had the option of going to Saudi and taking (additional doses of) Covishield after a four-day institutional quarantine, but I was not sure of its implications on my health,” said Sugathan, referring to AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Also read: No Green Light Yet, WHO Seeks ‘Additional Clarifications’ from Bharat Biotech for Covaxin

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said after a meeting on Tuesday that its independent experts had sought “additional clarifications” from Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech for a final assessment on November 3.

Without a WHO nod, the two-dose Covaxin is unlikely to be accepted as a valid vaccine globally and would complicate travel plans for Indians who have taken it.

Rajan Pallivadakethil Unnunni, 59, who worked in Kuwait as a welder for two decades before flying to India late last year, has been unable to go back as Kuwait does not recognise Covaxin.

He is now struggling to repay his $20,000 bank loan selling chicken at a small stall in Kerala and making Rs 300 ($4) a day.

“If I cannot go back to Kuwait, I will not be able to repay the loan and complete the education of my children,” said Rajan, seated on a plastic stool in front of his shop.

“I can buy a ticket to Kuwait only if the Kuwait government app shows a green signal.”

India Delays COVID-19 Vaccine Supplies to WHO-Backed COVAX: Report

One of the sources said it was “frustrating” that India had yet to confirm any supply to COVAX, despite a promise by the health minister last month to meet the commitment to COVAX and others during the quarter to December.

New Delhi: India has delayed in committing supplies of vaccine to the COVAX global sharing effort, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday, a day after one of its key backers, the WHO, said the agency could not “cut corners” to approve a domestically developed vaccine.

The world’s biggest vaccine maker resumed exports of COVID-19 doses this month for the first time since April. It has sent about 4 million to countries such as neighbouring Bangladesh and Iran, but none to COVAX.

Delayed supplies to COVAX could disrupt inoculation drives in many African nations that rely on it for vaccines.

On Monday, in the run-up to an October 26 meeting on Covaxin, India’s first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it could not “cut corners” in the approval decision.

Also Read: ‘Naïvely Ambitious’: How COVAX Failed on Its Promise to Vaccinate the World

The sources, who have been briefed on the export talks, declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak on the subject.

“We are still waiting for confirmation on when and how many doses we can expect when exports do resume, and are not aware of any specific delay,” COVAX co-lead GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, said in an email.

“Indian vaccines have a powerful role to play” in ending the pandemic, it added.

India’s health ministry, WHO and the Serum Institute of India (SII), which is the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, did not respond to requests for comment.

SII, contracted to supply hundreds of millions of doses of a version of the AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine to COVAX and countries such as Bangladesh, has more than tripled its output of the vaccine since April, to reach 220 million doses a month.

Indian government officials have said they are confident the WHO will soon approve emergency use of Covaxin, which accounts for 11% of the 990 million doses India has injected, with the rest mostly from AstraZeneca.

A few weeks ago, Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of SII, told the Telegraph newspaper that the company would resume exports to COVAX in October.

“Initially these supplies will be small, but by January 2022, once we have satisfied domestic demands … we will see large volumes go to COVAX,” he added.

Before India halted overseas vaccine shipments in April to fill domestic demand, it donated or sold more than 66 million COVID-19 doses, including Covaxin.

WHO’s Technical Group to Meet on Oct 26 to Consider Emergency Use Listing of Covaxin

Bharat Biotech recently said it submitted all data pertaining to Covaxin to the WHO for emergency use and is awaiting feedback from the global health watchdog.

United Nations/Geneva: The World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical advisory group will meet on October 26 to consider the emergency use listing (EUL) of Covaxin, a vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech protecting against COVID-19, the global health agency’s chief scientist said on Sunday.

“The technical advisory group will meet on Oct 26th to consider EUL for #Covaxin. WHO has been working closely with BharatBiotech to complete the dossier. Our goal is to have a broad portfolio of vaccines approved for emergency use and to expand access to populations everywhere,” World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a tweet on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the WHO said, “Bharat Biotech has been submitting data to WHO on a rolling basis and submitted additional information at the WHO’s request on September 27. The WHO experts are currently reviewing this information and if it addresses all questions raised, the WHO assessment will be finalised next week.”

Bharat Biotech had submitted EOI (expression of interest) on April 19 for its vaccine. The WHO said it began rolling data of the vaccine on July 6.

Also read: ‘Delay in Who Nod for Covaxin Suggests Problems Exist’

Rolling data allows the WHO to start its review right away, as information continues to come in, to accelerate the overall review process.

According to the WHO, submissions for pre-qualification or listing under the emergency use procedure are confidential.

If a product submitted for assessment is found to meet the criteria for listing, the WHO will publish the results widely.

Duration of the emergency use listing process depends on the quality of the data submitted by the vaccine manufacturer and on the data meeting the WHO’s criteria, according to the agency.

The indigenously developed Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is one of the six vaccines that have received emergency use authorisation from India’s Drug Regulator and is being used in the nationwide anti-COVID-19 inoculation programme along with Covishield and Sputnik V.

Bharat Biotech recently said it submitted all data pertaining to Covaxin to the WHO for EUL and is awaiting feedback from the global health watchdog.

“#COVAXIN clinical trial data was fully compiled and available in June 2021. All Data submitted for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) Application to World Health Organization in early July. We have responded to any clarifications sought by #WHO and are awaiting further feedback,” Bharat Biotech had tweeted last month.

“We are diligently working with the WHO to obtain EUL at the earliest, the company had said on Tuesday.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus has claimed 4,897,386 lives along with 240,559,605 confirmed cases across the world so far.

(PTI)

WHO Employees Took Part in Congo Sex Abuse During Ebola Crisis, Report Says

At least 21 of 83 suspected perpetrators were employed by the WHO, and that the abuses, which included nine allegations of rape, were committed by both national and international staff, an independent commission found.

Geneva: More than 80 aid workers including some employed by the World Health Organization (WHO) were involved in sexual abuse and exploitation during an Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an independent commission said on Tuesday.

The probe was prompted by an investigation last year by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian in which more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and other charities of demanding sex in exchange for jobs between 2018-2020.

In its long-awaited report, the commission found that at least 21 of 83 suspected perpetrators were employed by the WHO, and that the abuses, which included nine allegations of rape, were committed by both national and international staff.

Also read: Victims at the Heart of International Criminal Justice

“The review team has established that the presumed victims were promised jobs in exchange for sexual relations or in order to keep their jobs,” commission member Malick Coulibaly told a press briefing.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has pledged zero tolerance on sexual abuse and is said to be seeking a second term at the United Nations health body, said the report made “harrowing reading” and profusely apologised to the victims.

“What happened to you should never happen to anyone. It is inexcusable. It is my top priority to ensure that the perpetrators are not excused but are held to account,” he said, promising further steps including “wholesale reform of our structures and culture”.

Regional director Matshidiso Moeti, said the health body was “humbled, horrified and heartbroken” by the findings. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson also apologised and thanked the victims for their courage in testifying.

Prosecutions unclear  

The known perpetrators have been banned from future WHO employment while the contracts of four people employed by the body have been terminated, officials said.

It is not clear if the perpetrators will face prosecution. Tedros said he planned to refer the rape allegations to Congo and to the countries of the suspected perpetrators. Some of them have yet to be identified.

Victims’ representatives in the one-time Ebola hotspot of Beni in eastern Congo welcomed the WHO’s response, but urged it to do more.

One girl, a 14-year-old named as “Jolianne” in the report, told the commission she was selling phone recharge cards on the side of the road in Mangina (April 2019) when a WHO driver offered her a ride home. Instead he took her to a hotel where she says he raped her and she later gave birth to his child.

Some women who were already employed told the review team that they continued to be sexually harassed by men in supervisory positions who forced them to have sex to keep their jobs, get paid or get a better paid position.

Also read: State Cooperation and the Challenge to International Criminal Justice

Some said they had been dismissed for refusing sex while others did not get the jobs they wanted even after consenting.

Alleged victims “were not provided with the necessary support and assistance required for such degrading experiences”, the report said.

Co-chair of the investigation Aïchatou Mindaoudou said that there was “no overlap” between the victims who testified in last year’s media reports and those it interviewed, acknowledging that this could point to a larger problem.

Some people at higher levels of the WHO “were aware of what was going on and did not act”, she added.

In June last year, Congo’s government announced the end of the two-year outbreak of Ebola that killed more than 2,200 people – the second-largest outbreak since the virus was identified in 1976.

Congo and other aid agencies have also pledged investigations into the sex abuse. Congo’s minister of human rights was not immediately available for comment.

Just Give Us the Vaccines, WHO Pleads as Poor Countries Lack Doses

The WHO director general chastised unnamed countries for their reluctance in sharing COVID-19 vaccine doses with low-income countries.

Geneva: Rich countries are opening up societies and vaccinating young people who are not at great risk from COVID-19, while the poorest countries cruelly lack doses, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, condemning a global failure.

The situation in Africa, where new infections and deaths jumped by nearly 40% last week compared to the previous week, is “so dangerous” as the Delta variant spreads globally, said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Our world is failing, as the global community we are failing,” he said at a news conference.

Tedros, who is Ethiopian, chastised unnamed countries for reluctance to share doses with low-income countries. He compared it to the HIV/AIDS crisis, when some argued that African nations were unable to use complicated treatments.

“I mean that attitude has to be a thing of the past,” Tedros said. “The problem now is a supply problem, just give us the vaccines.”

“The difference is between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ which is now completely exposing the unfairness of our world – the injustice, the inequality, let’s face it,” he said.

“Many developing countries are much better than industrialised countries in carrying out mass vaccination of their populations against infectious diseases from cholera to polio,” WHO‘s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said.

“The level of paternalism, the level of colonial mindset that says ‘we can’t give you something because we’re afraid you won’t use it’. I mean, seriously, in the middle of a pandemic?”

COVAX, run jointly by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO, has delivered 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 132 countries since February, but has faced major supply issues since India suspended vaccine exports.

“We are through COVAX this month, zero doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, zero doses of SII (Serum Institute of India) vaccines and zero doses of J&J (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine,” said Bruce Aylward, WHO senior adviser.

“The situation right now is dire.”

(Reuters)

Origins of COVID: India Says WHO’s Global Study Needed To Reach ‘Robust Conclusions’

India’s statement was clearly aligning with the US, which has been pushing to have a greater influence on the second phase of studies by the UN’s global health body into the source of the coronavirus.

New Delhi: After Beijing asserted that the probe into the origin of the coronavirus should move away from China, India on Friday indicated that the World Health Organisation’s future studies required the “understanding and cooperation of all”.

India’s statement was clearly aligning with the US, which has been pushing to have a greater influence on the second phase of studies by the UN’s global health body into the source of the coronavirus.

The WHO has been holding its annual World Health Assembly (WHA) since April 24, which marks the return of the US to the UN agency since the Biden administration undid former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from it.

“The WHO convened global study on the origin of COVID-19 as an important first step. It stressed the need for the next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions. The follow up of the WHO report and further studies deserve the understanding and cooperation of all,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Friday.

The use of the phrase “understanding and cooperation of all” pointed at China, which has explicitly stated that the origins probe has to look beyond the Asian giant in the future.

“China’s part has been completed. China supports the scientists to conduct a global origin tracing cooperation. We call on all parties to adopt an open and transparent attitude to cooperate with the WHO in origin tracing,” said a Chinese representative to the WHA on Tuesday.

Also read: Origins of COVID-19: Who Opened Pandora’s Box at Wuhan – People or Nature?

The White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt reiterated that China had to provide more answers. “It is our position that we need to get to the bottom of this, and we need a completely transparent process from China; we need the WHO to assist in that matter. We don’t feel like we have that now.  We need to get to the bottom of this, whatever the answer may be, and that’s a critical priority for us,” he told reporters.

The WHO’s joint report with Chinese scientists released in March this year had assessed that while transmission from bats to humans was “likely”, it was “extremely unlikely” that SARS-CoV-2 would have emerged due to a “laboratory accident”.

However, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that the laboratory leak hypothesis “required further investigation” with “additional missions involving specialist experts”.

At that time, India had squarely backed the WHO chief and welcomed his “readiness to deploy additional missions”.

On May 23, the Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence agencies had found that three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology had been hospitalised in November 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness”. The Chinese institute had been involved in research studies on coronavirus in bats.

With the laboratory leak theory getting more traction, US President Biden asked the US intelligence community (IC) to submit a report within 90 days on the possibility of this hypothesis. This would be a follow-up to a report submitted earlier this month, which found that the “majority of elements (in IC) do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other”.

“I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyse information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,” Biden announced on Wednesday.

WHO Chief Tedros: Comments Questioning Independence are ‘Untrue and Unacceptable’

“Our sole focus is on saving lives,” Ghebreyesus said.

Geneva: The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that reported comments by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questioning his independence were untrue and would not distract the organisation from its work in fighting the coronavirus.

Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has come under criticism, especially from US President Donald Trump and Pompeo, who have accused him of being pro-China.

Also read: Not Just COVID-19 Guidelines, Our Govt Would Do Well To Follow WHO’s ‘Life Skills’

“And the comments are untrue and unacceptable and without any foundation, for that matter,” Tedros said in response to a question at a Geneva briefing about remarks by Pompeo reported in London on Tuesday, questioning his independence.

“Our sole focus ‒ and the focus of the entire organisation ‒ is on saving lives. … And WHO will not be distracted by these comments. We don’t want the international community also to be distracted,” he said.

A WHO advance team has been in China for nearly two weeks, organising a WHO-led international mission to investigate the origins of the virus. Scientists believe it emerged in a food market in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

“We are already beginning to reach out to experts at the international level to see who will be available and most appropriate to be able to support an international mission in the coming weeks,” Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert, said.

Tedros said the WHO was seeing intense transmission of the coronavirus in relatively few countries.

“Two-thirds of all cases are from 10 countries. Almost half of all cases reported so far are from just three countries,” he said, referring to the United States, Brazil and India.

Worldwide more than 15 million cases have been reported and nearly 6,20,000 deaths, he said.

Recorded US coronavirus infections exceeded 4 million on Thursday, with more than 2,600 new ones every hour on average, the highest rate in the world, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections in the US have rapidly accelerated since the first COVID-19 case was detected on January 21. It took the country 98 days to reach 1 million cases. It took another 43 days to reach 2 million and then 27 days to reach 3 million.

It has only taken 16 days to reach 4 million at a rate of 43 new cases a minute.

Tedros also said that just because cases may be at a low level where someone lives, it doesn’t mean they should let down their guard.

“Know your situation ‒ do you know how many cases were reported where you live yesterday? Do you know how to find that information? Do you know how to minimise your exposure?” he asked.

(Reuters)