World must be better prepared for next pandemic, says WHO boss

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday the world must be better prepared for the next pandemic, as he called on countries to invest in public health.

More than 27.19 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 888 326 have died, according to a Reuters tally, since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

"This will not be the last pandemic," Tedros told a news briefing in Geneva.

"History teaches us that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life. But when the next pandemic comes, the world must be ready – more ready than it was this time."

Reuters

Spain surpasses 500 000 virus cases: health ministry

Spain's total coronavirus cases have crossed half a million, government data showed Monday, as the government struggles to contain a recent surge of infections in one of Europe's hardest-hit countries.

The country of around 47 million people has 525 549 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and 29 516 related deaths, according to the health ministry.

-AFP

WHO says working with China on requirements for Covid-19 vaccine approval

The World Health Organisation is working with China on requirements for international approval of any Chinese Covid-19 vaccine, a senior official said on Monday.

"WHO's office in China and WHO headquarters has been working with the regulatory authorities in China," assistant director-general Mariangela Simao told a briefing in Geneva.

"We are in direct contact, we have been sharing information and the requirements for international approval of vaccines."

The chief executive of Sinovac Biotech Ltd said on Sunday about 90% of the Chinese firm's employees and their families have taken an experimental vaccine it has developed under the country's emergency use programme.

The extent of inoculations under the emergency programme, which China launched in July but has released few details about, points to how actively it is using experimental vaccines in the hopes of protecting essential workers against a potential Covid-19 resurgence, even as trials are still under way.

- Reuters

More than 200 UN staff in Syria coronavirus positive, says officials

More than 200 United Nations staff members have been infected by Covid-19 in Syria as the global body steps up plans to combat the spread of the pandemic in the war-torn country, medical workers and UN officials said.

UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria Imran Riza last week told UN heads of agencies in a letter that the UN was in the final stages of securing a medical facility to treat the cases.

"More than two hundred cases have been reported among UN staff members, some of whom have been hospitalised and three who were medically evacuated," the letter said.

Reuters news agency on Monday said the letter was leaked to it by an infected local UN staff member.

Humanitarian workers and medics said the real number of cases is considerably higher, including the hundreds of staff employed by NGO partners working for nearly a dozen UN agencies that oversee the country's humanitarian relief operations.

Riza said there had been a ten-fold spike in infections in Syria in the two months since he last briefed staff, referring to health ministry figures that say there have been 3 171 cases and 134 deaths since the first case was reported on 23 March.

"The epidemiological situation across the country has changed considerably," Riza said.

Damascus-based medics and relief workers are sceptical of official figures, saying the authorities are covering up the true extent. The authorities deny that, but admit testing is limited.

The UN has expressed concern about the spread of the coronavirus in a country where the health infrastructure has been shattered by war and medical supplies are limited.

Independent medics and relief workers say many doctors and medical workers have died in recent weeks.

Witnesses and cemetery officials say there had been a tripling of burials since July in a cemetery that lies south of the capital, where NGOs and medics say most cases are concentrated.

-Reuters

Greece has registered at least nine cases of coronavirus in the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos so far, a migration ministry official said on Monday.

Last week, the facility was placed under quarantine after authorities confirmed that a 40-year-old asylum-seeker had tested positive for coronavirus.

"So far, there are nine cases in the camp in Moria. The number might increase," the ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Since March 1, all migrants reaching Lesbos have been quarantined away from the island's camps.

-Reuters

India overtook Brazil as the second-worst hit country by the Covid-19, Malaysia reported its sharpest rise in new cases in three months, and South Korea weighed whether to extend curbs ahead of a national holiday.

Asia-Pacific

India overtook Brazil in infection numbers but the government resumed underground train services and announced plans to re-open the Taj Mahal this month.

South Korea reported its lowest tally of new infections in more than three weeks, but officials are weighing whether to extend social distancing curbs ahead of one of the country's biggest holidays this month.

Malaysia reported its sharpest rise in cases since early June, just as the government began barring long-term immigration pass holders from countries with high infection numbers.

Australia expects to receive its first batches of a potential Covid-19 vaccine in January, its prime minister said.

Europe

Britain is working to reduce the 14-day quarantine period for arrivals from countries including Spain and France.

The limit on public gatherings will be lowered to 50 people from 100 in Denmark's capital Copenhagen and in Odense, after a recent spike in infections.

Sweden will boost funding for elderly care by around $500 million in its 2021 budget after the number of deaths in old people's homes during the pandemic sparked concern.

America

Cases are rising in 22 of the 50 US states, according to a Reuters analysis, a worrying trend on a Labour Day holiday weekend traditionally filled with family gatherings and parties to mark the end of summer.

Honduran finance minister said on Sunday he had tested positive for coronavirus.

Five percent of Brazilians would refuse under any circumstances to take a vaccine against the coronavirus and a further 20% indicated they might not take it, according to a survey published in newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

-Reuters