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The number of reported cases of COVID-19 globally has declined for the fifth consecutive week, the head of the UN health agency said on Monday, underscoring that “simple public health measures work, even in the presence of variants”.

“Last week saw the lowest number of reported weekly cases since October”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists at a regular press briefing in Geneva.  

Whilst the global economy has taken a battering during the COVID-19 pandemic, online commerce has thrived. A UN-supported initiative is helping refugees and migrants around the world to access the tools and customers they need to build their businesses and improve their livelihoods.

Six months after a massive explosion destroyed much of the centre of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a mother has been talking about the “indescribable” grief she has experienced at losing her two-year-old son to injuries sustained in the blast.

World Radio Day, celebrated annually on 13 February, provides an opportunity to hail the evolution, innovation and connection of this ever-evolving, 110-year-old medium that the UN cultural agency chief called a “vector of freedom”.   

This year’s theme “New World, New Radio” is an ode to the resilience of radio and a tribute to its capacity to adapt to societal transformations and listeners’ needs. 

More children could be pushed into the joining armed forces and armed groups due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, senior United Nations and European Union (EU) officials said on International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers, observed on Thursday. 

Amidst some positive news from the World Health Organization (WHO) that both COVID-19 deaths and new cases have recently been on the wane, there are “three major threats” to the UN-led international equitable vaccine initiative, COVAX, that require urgent attention. 

A World Health Organization (WHO) expert panel countered concerns over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine on Wednesday, insisting that “it’s the right thing to do” to use it – even in countries where variants had surfaced. 

Closed labs and increased care responsibilities are just two of the challenges women in scientific fields are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN chief said in his message for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, on Thursday. 

 The UN Special Envoy for Syria said there had to be “constructive international diplomacy” if the peace process is to move forward in any way, appearing before the Security Council behind closed doors on Tuesday.  

“I am more convinced than ever that without this, it is unlikely that any track – the constitutional track or any other – will really move forward”, Geir O. Pedersen told a stakeout held online for UN correspondents, following the briefing. 

The virus that causes COVID-19 probably jumped from animals to humans and is “extremely unlikely” to have come from a laboratory, the head of an international team investigating the origins of the disease said on Tuesday. 

Dr. Peter Ben Embarek from the World Health Organization (WHO) was speaking during a press conference in Wuhan, China, at the end of a four-week mission to the city where the new coronavirus first emerged in December 2019.