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Gaps in life-saving interventions are undermining efforts to curb malaria, amid fears that the coronavirus pandemic could set back the fight against the disease even further, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said. 

According to the World Malaria Report, released on Monday, the situation is particularly concerning in high-burden countries in Africa. 

Testing will still be a critical tool against COVID-19, even as vaccines are deployed against the disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday during his regular briefing on the crisis. 

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Gheybreyesus emphasized how testing has been common among countries which have worked to control the virus. 

Commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to explore every opening to “restore hope” for a two-State solution. 

In a message, the UN chief cautioned that prospects for a viable two-State solution are becoming “more distant”. 

Countries should adopt ambitious new targets to tackle HIV / AIDS to avoid hundreds of thousands of additional infections and deaths linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN said on Thursday.

In its appeal, the specialised UN agency UNAIDS warned that the pandemic has pushed the world’s AIDS response even further off track, and that 2020 targets are being missed.

It urged countries to learn from the lessons of underinvesting in healthcare and to step up global action to end AIDS and other global health emergencies.

Although much progress has been made in highlighting the pressing issue of violence against women and girls, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is pushing the world to go further towards ending what he has characterized as a blight on all societies. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic precipitating one of the world’s worst health, socioeconomic and humanitarian crises in over a century, the UN chief told a high-level discussion on Tuesday to seize the opportunity “to make real, foundational, and necessary change”. 

“We need global solidarity and coordination”, Secretary-General António Guterres said at the event headlined, ‘Rebirthing the Global Economy to Deliver Sustainable Development for All’.   

Two separate bomb attacks in northern Syria on Tuesday, which reportedly left at least seven civilians dead and many more wounded, have been condemned by the UN.

At least five people were killed and about 18 wounded in an explosion that occurred near a bus station in Al Bab city, in the Aleppo governorate. A few hours later, another blast took place on a busy street in Afrin, also in Aleppo governorate, killing two people and wounding 15 others, according to initial reports.  

In collaboration with the UN Information Centre in Beirut (UNIC Beirut), Social Events Endeavor Lebanon (SEE Lebanon) organized a conceptual concert titled “3ala Amal”, in its attempt to spread hope and deliver a shout-out to all the people in Lebanon who are enduring difficult days as a result of compounding financial, economic, and health crises hitting the country, including the repercussions of the August 4 Beirut blast.

Along with other tried and tested public health measures, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists on Monday that “there is now real hope” that vaccines will play an essential part in helping end the COVID pandemic. 

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is working with more than 350 partners, including major airlines, shipping lines and logistics associations from around the world, to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to over 92 countries, as soon as doses become available, the agency said on Monday. 

Etleva Kadilli, Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division, highlighted the importance of the partnership to ensure capacity for the massive undertaking.