Switzerland

GENEVA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- All available evidence to date suggests that the novel coronavirus, which has caused the ongoing pandemic, has a natural animal origin and is not a manipulated or constructed virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a daily situation report on Thursday.

GENEVA, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization (WHO) said that all available evidence suggests that the novel coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and it was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan in central China.

GENEVA, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations has warned that the coronavirus pandemic could almost double the number of people around the world suffering from acute hunger.

The UN’s World Food Programme said the virus could be catastrophic for millions of people whose lives are already hanging by a thread – who can only eat if they are earning a wage.

A report compiled by the organisation said the total number suffering from hunger could be pushed from 135 million last year to more than 250 million.

GENEVA, April 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization insisted that it sounded the alarm on the novel coronavirus right from the very start and had hidden nothing from Washington about the deadly pandemic.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there were no secrets at the UN agency after being blasted by the United States for allegedly downplaying the initial COVID-19 outbreak in China.

“We have been warning from day one that this is a devil that everyone should fight,” Tedros told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Myanmar army is carrying out “almost daily airstrikes and shelling” in the restive Rakhine and Chin states, where at least 32 civilians have been killed since March 23, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday.

“It is very difficult to get precise information from Rakhine on whether the reported casualties are the result of targeting or were caught in the crossfire between the Arakan army and Myanmar army,” spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing in response to a question.

GENEVA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The global total of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) has exceeded the 2 million mark as of Friday.

According to the latest figures of the WHO Health Emergency Dashboard, updated at 10:00 a.m. CET (0800 GMT), there have been 2,034,477 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 133,873 deaths worldwide reported to the global health watchdog.

The United States has reported 632,781 confirmed cases with 28,221 deaths to the United Nations specialized agency, being the hardest hit country.

GENEVA, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) –The World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern following the emergence of fresh cases.

The announcement on Tuesday came just a day after the country had been expected to announce that its outbreak – the tenth recorded in its history and by far its largest – was over.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Countries that ease restrictions imposed to fight the spread of the coronavirus should wait at least two weeks to evaluate the impact of such changes before easing again, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

In its latest Strategy Update, the U.N. agency said that the world stands at a “pivotal juncture” in the pandemic and that “speed, scale, and equity must be our guiding principles” when deciding what measures are necessary.

GENEVA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has hit over 22,000 healthcare workers across 52 countries and regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Saturday.

According to its daily situation report, 22,073 COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers have been reported to the WHO as of Wednesday, April 8.

The report said the number is probably under-represented as there is so far no systematic reporting of infections among healthcare workers to the WHO.

GENEVA/ROME, Apr 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) – As some European countries, hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, are starting to see signs of slowing in infections, the World Health Organisation (WHO) sounded a stern warning, against lifting restrictions too soon, saying, it could lead to a deadly resurgence of COVID-19.

“In the past week, we’ve seen a welcome slowing in some of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, like Spain, Italy, Germany and France,” WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.