Authorities in Spain insist the new coronavirus variant is not to blame for the resurgence of cases and that the country can avoid a full lockdown even as its hospitals fill up.
Authorities in Spain insist the new coronavirus variant is not to blame for the resurgence of cases and that the country can avoid a full lockdown even as its hospitals fill up.
The WHO team of international researchers that arrived in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday hopes to find clues to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The WHO team includes virus and other experts from the United States, Australia, Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Qatar and Vietnam.
The worldwide death toll is approaching 2 million people since the pandemic began, with 91.5 million people infected.
The experts will arrive on Thursday and meet with Chinese counterparts, the National Health Commission said in a one-sentence statement that gave no other details.
Hard-hit Britain, for example, has decided to delay for as much as 12 weeks -- and data from that expansion could help contribute to possible revisions in the WHO recommendation.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China has a close co-operation with WHO.
Beijing is desperate to avoid blame for a virus that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide, leading experts to believe China may deny investigators some access.
Its addition allows countries to expedite their own regulatory approval process for the vaccine.
The WHO said if there is one thing to take away from this pandemic, it's that "we need to get ready for something which may be more severe in the future."
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19, said the mutated variant may be more transmissible, but there is no evidence it would increase the severity of the disease.
China has strongly opposed calls for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, saying such calls are anti-China, but has been open to a WHO-led investigation.
While some countries that have independent vaccine purchase agreements might start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, others may not see vaccinations until late 2021.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for $4.2 billion in the next two months for the World Health Organization's COVAX program.
One report estimates that as much as 38 per cent of the population of Khartoum was infected.
The advice is another setback for the drug, which grabbed worldwide attention as a potentially effective treatment for COVID-19 in the summer after early trials showed some promise.
Discovery of a new strain of the virus on Denmark’s mink farms infecting 12 people prompts drastic measures, as experts urge caution and call for more research.
The WHO director-general has been at the forefront of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Michael Ryan of the WHO, said the figures mean ``the vast majority of the world remains at risk" of coronavirus.