Pandemic has exposed a divided world, says WHO

Coronavirus ldquohas exposed a broken world that is inequitable unaccountable and dividedrdquo resulting in its failure to put an end to the pandemic that has so far killed 495 million globally according to a report by a World Health Organisation WHO panel on TuesdayThe report was launched by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board GPMB an independent body set up by the WHO and the World Bank in 2018 to prepare for pandemics in Berlin It stated that from the time the pandemic began almost two years ago the world continues to ldquostrugglerdquo to mitigate its impactWhile in the first year countries ldquocollectively failedrdquo to take serious preparations and act rapidly in the second they exhibited ldquoprofound inequalityrdquo as the world leaders failed to interconnect making ldquothe world more interdependent than everrdquo The world continues to be ldquofragmented by growing nationalism geopolitical tensions and deep inequalitiesrdquo said the reportldquoAs of October 2021 as many as 17 million people will have died due to Covid19 More than 15 million children around the world have lost a parent or a grandparent Behind each death there is a human story a loss of potential and an enormous gap left in a community While this disaster should have brought us together instead we are divided fragmented and living in worlds apartrdquo said Elhadj As Sy CoChair at GPMB in the report Although the speed of vaccine development is a matter of pride but ldquowe must feel deep shame over multiple tragedies mdash vaccine hoarding the devastating oxygen shortages in lowincome countries the generation of children deprived of education the shattering of fragile economies and health systemsrdquo he addedlsquoNo Covid cases found in N KorearsquoNorth Korea has conducted Coronavirus tests on around 42000 people but no person was found to be infected by the virus a World Health Organization WHO report revealed on Tuesday A total of 678 North Koreans underwent testing for the virus from October 814 but all were found negative according to the WHOrsquos Covid19 weekly situation reportMaldives sees over 1L tourists in OctOver 100000 tourists have visited the Maldives in the month of October the stateowned PSM News citing data from the Ministry of Tourism said on Tuesday Ministry data showed that 102434 tourists visited the Maldives from October 1 to 24 a 599 per cent increase from the same period in 2020 but a 2 per cent decrease compared to 2019 reports Xinhua news agency11 Chinese provinces under lockdown againChina is reimposing fresh lockdowns amid rising Covid19 infections the country recorded more than 100 cases across 11 provinces over the last week ldquoSince October 17 there have been multiple scattered local outbreaks in China and theyrsquore expanding rapidlyrdquo Mi Feng a spokesman at the National Health Commission NHC said at a news conference Sunday ldquoThere is an increasing risk that the outbreak will spread even furtherrdquo reported CNNVaccine hoardingAntonio Guterres UN SecretaryGenerallsquoThe triumph of the vaccines developed and brought to market in record speed is being undone by the tragedy of an unequal distribution Three quarters of all vaccines have gone to highand uppermiddleincome countries Vaccine nationalism and hoarding are putting us all at riskrsquoSenior UNITED STATES administration officiallsquoUnder this new international air travel system foreign nationals will need to be fully vaccinated in order to fly to the United States The new system also includes enhanced testing requirements strengthened contact tracing as well as maskingrsquo35707No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours244264890Total no of cases worldwide4959865Total no of deaths worldwideThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever