Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
WHO Says Covid Deaths Rose Around The World Last Week
Global COVID-19 activity stayed high and largely even last week, as deaths rose, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its latest weekly update on the pandemic. (Schnirring, 7/20)
Australia reported one of its highest daily death tolls from the novel coronavirus on Thursday while hospital admissions hovered near record levels, as authorities struggle to get ahead of highly contagious Omicron variants. The BA.4/5 variants are good at evading immune protection from vaccination or prior infection and have been driving a surge of new infections globally. (7/21)
China's southern megacity of Shenzhen vowed to "mobilise all resources" to curb a slowly spreading COVID-19 outbreak, ordering strict implementation of testing and temperature checks, and lockdowns for COVID-affected buildings. Shenzhen, with a population of nearly 18 million, reported 22 new locally transmitted cases for Wednesday, with the daily count creeping up from single digits earlier this month. (Kirton and Liu, 7/21)
And the WHO also addressed health care for refugees —
"Health does not begin or end at a country's border. Migratory status should therefore not be a discriminatory factor but a policy driver on which to build and strengthen healthcare," Santino Severoni, WHO's director of health and migration said in a statement. (7/20)
