Some countries were accused of deafening their ears on the warnings

"World Health" defends its response to "Corona" one year after the declaration of the pandemic

Biden visits a vaccination center in Washington, DC.

EPA

The World Health Organization, which is leading efforts to combat the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), defended the delay in issuing the warning about the Corona virus, which was not considered a pandemic until March 11, 2020. Some countries have accused them of deafening their ears to their first warnings.

The director of the World Health Organization's emergency program, Michael Ryan, said in a press conference, that he fully understands the reasons for the general public not interacting as required with the declaration of the state of emergency on January 30, 2020, but he stressed that countries should have interacted as required to realize what this emergency declaration is.

In an angry tone, Ryan said: "Yes, we might have to raise the volume more, but maybe some people need hearing aids," accusing some countries that he did not name deafening their ears to the first warnings of the World Health Organization.

"We have made every effort to give daily information about the current situation," said Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical officer on "Covid-19" at the World Health Organization.

Inform the world about what we know about this virus, and its dangers, and we said from the beginning that this virus is dangerous, and that the systems must be activated.

And she continued, "We acted after that, and prepared an integrated preparation and response plan that was published four days after the declaration of a public health emergency of international importance."

For his part, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed that in the days and weeks following the declaration of the state of health emergency, the organization continued to issue warnings and prepared strategies, tips and means to help countries prepare, prevent, monitor and combat the new virus.

On the other hand, the United Nations announced that the pace of vaccination against "Covid-19" in Africa is accelerating, with nine countries on the continent receiving shipments of anti-virus vaccines under the "Kovacs" mechanism established by the World Health Organization to make vaccines available to low-income countries.

In the United States, the US authorities announced, for the first time in more than three months, the registration of a daily death toll from "Covid-19" of less than 1000 deaths.

Johns Hopkins University data, which is considered a reference in tracking injuries and deaths resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, showed that the United States recorded, within 24 hours, the death of 749 people, after it had recorded on January 12 a record daily death toll of 4,473 deaths.

These data confirm that the pace of the outbreak of the epidemic is declining in the United States, where the mortality curve as well as infections have returned to the levels they were before Halloween and Thanksgiving and other celebrations and occasions in which the country witnessed mass movements and huge gatherings that contributed to the outbreak of the virus.

And the US health authorities announced that people who received complete anti-virus doses can meet each other in small groups and in closed places without wearing masks and without adhering to the rules of social distancing.

US President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a prime-hour televised address on the first anniversary of the start of the battle in the United States against the (Covid-19) pandemic, a day after he visited a vaccination center for veterans in Washington, DC.

In Italy, the “Italian-Russian” Chamber of Commerce announced the start of production of the Russian “Sputnik-V” vaccine against the Corona virus in Italy, starting next July at the factories of the Italian-Swiss pharmaceutical company in Lombardy in northern Italy, a precedent in the European Union that was not given light. Green yet for this vaccine.

The Chamber of Commerce said that 10 million doses will be produced between July 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022, stressing that this is the first agreement at the European level to produce the "Sputnik-V" vaccine in the European Union.

Sputnik-V has not yet been licensed in the European Union, but the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency has begun reviewing it, which is an important step for licensing it.

After this announcement, the Russian authorities said they were ready to provide vaccines to 50 million Europeans from June.

Hospital occupancy in Palestine exceeds 100%

Yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that the occupancy rate of hospitals and intensive care units in them with Corona virus patients exceeded 100%, despite the opening of many hospitals and medical centers and the doubling of the number of intensive care units since the beginning of the pandemic.

He added during the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah that the occupancy rate exceeded 100%, although the third wave of the Corona pandemic continues to severely affect the Palestinian community, and the number of injuries and deaths is increasing on a daily basis.

Ramallah - Reuters

China releases a health passport for its citizens

China has launched a digital passport for its citizens that allows them to prove their health status while traveling to and from abroad.

This digital certificate, which shows whether its holder has received the vaccine or not, in addition to the results of the Corona virus test, is available to Chinese citizens through a program on the Chinese social networking platform "WeChat" launched by the country.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that this document was launched with the aim of helping to promote the global economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel.

It is believed that the certificate is the first known "vaccine passport" in the world.

Beijing - AFP

Biden gives a speech tomorrow on the first anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic.

Italy will start production of the Russian "Sputnik-V" vaccine, starting next July.

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