The authorization comes as the world works to ramp up its coronavirus vaccinations to significantly curb the pandemic over a year after it broke out in Wuhan, China.
Up till April 27, B1617 variant had been detected in over 1,200 sequences uploaded on the open-access database GISAID (the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data) "from at least 17 countries", the global health agency said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic.
According to the WHO, a variant is considered worrying if it spreads more easily, causes more serious cases of the disease, bypasses the immune system or reduces the effectiveness of known treatments.
The head of WHO says that the UN agency has dispatched critical supplies to India, including thousands of portable oxygen machines that help patients breathe.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said the situation in India is beyond heartbreaking, as the nation clocked over 3.5 lakh cases of coronavirus in a day.
A recent WHO survey has found that about 66 percent of countries continue to report health workforce-related reasons as the most common cause of service disruptions.
Dr Silvio Brusaferro was drawn into scandal after a leaked document from Bergamo prosecutors last week revealed transcripts of WhatsApp chats between Brusaferro and a WHO official.
Close to 40 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have already been distributed through the COVAX Facility, half of them in Africa, but vaccine supplies are still stalled due to "tremendous demand" especially in India, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
While citing "many countries around the world" have shown that this virus can be stopped and contained with proven public health measures and strong systems that respond rapidly and consistently, Tedros said that the global body "does not warrant endless lockdowns".
China said on Thursday that it has shared all data and analyses with the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) tracing the origin of Covid-19, and it is ready to continue working with global experts to jointly study and analyse the data.
India on Thursday demanded a comprehensive and expert-led mechanism to expeditiously investigate the origin of coronavirus, days after the World Health Organization (WHO) came out with a report on it that failed to meet expectations of the US, the UK, and several other countries.
European nations' immunisation campaigns against COVID-19 are “unacceptably slow” and risk prolonging the pandemic, a senior World Health Organisation official said Thursday.
A total of 34 experts from the WHO and China jointly conducted 28-day research from January 14 to February 10 in Wuhan, China, Xinhua news agency reported.
The report of the international team which visited the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first reported in December 2019, from January 14 to February 10 was published on Tuesday.
A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely”, according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.
The head of the World Health Organization is asking rich countries to donate at least 10 million coronavirus vaccines so the UN health agency can reach its goal of vaccination in all countries within the first 100 days of 2021.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said it was concerned about the potential criminal exploitation of the huge unmet global demand for Covid-19 vaccines, warned against counterfeit vaccines and urged people to stick to government-run vaccination programs.
The vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is the first to be listed by WHO as a single dose regimen, which should facilitate vaccination logistics in all countries.
Exercising regularly is known to have many health advantages but did you know it could also benefit people with kidney disease? According to a recent study, kidney disease was less likely to progress in active individuals, who also had fewer heart problems and improved survival.
The World Health Organization has warned that one in four people in the world - nearly 2.5 billion people - will be living with some degree of hearing impairment by 2050.
Top News
