Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
WHO Warns That Covid Is Racing Upward In Europe
WHO said the 53 countries in its European region, which stretches to central Asia, reported nearly 3 million new coronavirus infections last week and that the virus was killing about 3,000 people every week. Globally, COVID-19 cases have increased for the past five weeks, even as countries have scaled back on testing. (7/19)
During the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s cybersecurity team was caught off guard by a huge increase in attempts to hack its systems and a cyberattack that led to some of the organization’s data leaking online. (Stupp, 7/19)
In news on non-covid health matters around the world —
In its latest global flu update, which covers the last half of June, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the level of virus activity has stabilized after dropping from a March peak. Activity appears to have plateaued in the temperate Southern Hemisphere countries following increasing levels there. Tropical regions South America and Africa also reported decreasing or low activity. (7/19)
The northwestern Chinese region of Ningxia reported one human infection of plague, state television said late on Tuesday. The caseload of human plague infection, a highly infectious and severe disease, is low in China, with just one in 2021 and no deaths, down from four infections and three deaths in 2020, according to data from the National Health Commission, which does not specify the types of plague for each person. (7/19)
