Geneva – The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, hailed, on Saturday in Geneva, Morocco’s efforts to achieve universal health coverage.

The official emphasized the significance of bolstering primary healthcare and the production of vaccines and medicines, stressing their crucial role in achieving health sovereignty in Africa, during discussions with the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khalid Ait Taleb, on the sidelines of the 76th session of the World Health Assembly (May 21–30).

In this regard, Ghebreyesus voiced his support for the significant reforms implemented by Morocco in this sector, as well as the backing of the entire WHO team.

Based on the Covid-19 pandemic’s experience, which brought about both social and economic changes, he also emphasized the necessity to improve readiness for and reaction to health emergencies.

Ait Taleb, for his part, applauded WHO’s efforts to improve the state of global health while reviewing the creative projects started by Morocco in response to His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s High Directives, particularly with regard to the expansion of social protection and the reform of the healthcare system.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) affirmed Monday that the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic is now “growing exponentially,” especially after more than 4.4 million new Covid-19 cases had been reported over the last week.

According to Maria Van Kerkhove, the agency’s technical lead for Covid-19, “we’re in a critical point of the pandemic,” especially as some countries moderate covid-19 restrictions although new cases per week are more than eight times higher than a year ago.

“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic where we have proven control measures. It is the time right now where everyone has to take stock and have a reality check of what we need to be doing,” she further added during a press briefing. “Vaccines and vaccinations are coming online, but they aren’t here yet in every part of the world.”

Covid-19 cases escalated by 9% worldwide last week and deaths rose by 5%, she added, demanding governments to support their citizens in implementing pandemic safety measures.

WHO officials warned last month of a continuous rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths, thus, urging people to stick with mask mandates and respect social distancing rules as the world witnesses a critical phase of the pandemic.

According to Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, the virus is “stronger, it’s faster” with the emergence of new variants that spread more easily and are more deadly than the original wild strain of the virus. “We’re all struggling” with and sick of restrictive lockdowns, he said.

The US recorded B.1.1.7 cases. The highly contagious coronavirus variant is now the most common strain circulating, expressed Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week.

Hospitals are also witnessing a rise in young people being admitted, she further added.

Walensky pointed out that the US needs to speed up its vaccination efforts, which reached in average about 3.1 million shots per day. “We must continue to vaccinate as many Americans as we can each day,” Walensky said, adding it will cause new cases and deaths to decline.

The WHO urged the public and world leaders to stick with and continue to practice safety measures, including social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding crowded spaces.

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Today, Monday, March 29th, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the consequences of a widening gap between the numbers of anti Covid-19 vaccines that are being administered in rich countries and those being distributed to poor countries through the COVAX mechanism.

The warning came after the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, criticized the “unfair distribution” of vaccines in the world, calling on the rich countries that “store” huge quantities of these vaccines to share part of them with the rest of the world to put an end to the pandemic.

“The gap between the number of vaccines provided in rich countries and the number of vaccines distributed COVAX is expanding every day”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, during a virtual meeting hosted by the UAE to discuss the issue of vaccine distribution.

He continued, “The unfair distribution of vaccines is not just an ethical dilemma, it is also an economic and epidemic self-defeat,” adding, “as long as the virus continues to spread, death will continue, trade and travel will be disrupted, and the economic recovery will be delayed further.”

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Yesterday, March 3rd, the World Health Organization in Morocco (OMSMaroc) Tweeted that Morocco still retains its rank among the top ten countries which have, to date, the highest number of vaccinations against Covid-19.

According to Our World in Data, as of Tuesday, March 2nd, Morocco is ranked fifth in the world’s list of the most successful countries in managing their vaccination campaigns, with a score of 0.41 daily doses per 100 people.

At the top of the rankings is Israel with a score of 1.09 doses per 100 people, followed by Chile (0.84 doses), United Arab Emirates (0.67 doses), and the United States (0.52 doses).

In Morocco, the latest report from the Ministry of Health, issued on March 2nd, revealed that more than 3.7 Moroccans have been vaccinated. In terms of doses administered, a peak was reached on Monday, February 15th, with 318,552 vaccinations.

It is noteworthy that Moroccan authorities plan to almost double the national vaccination capacity to reach the threshold of 500,000 doses administered per day.

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The World Health Organization announced on Wednesday, that the mutated variant of the Coronavirus, which first appeared in UK, has been found in at least 60 countries, ten more countries than what was the situation a week ago.

In its epidemiological situation weekly report, the World Health Organization said that the second mutated variant appeared first in South Africa and ismaybe considered more infectious than the British one, this new variant of Coronavirus has been detected in 23 countries, an increase of 3 countries more than the number recorded on 12 of January.

The Organization said it is monitoring the spread of two other variants that have recently appeared in Brazil, namely “B1”, which was detected in the state of “Amazonas” and was also discovered in Japan in four people who came from Brazil.

WHO continued, “Currently, there isn’t enough information available on whether the contagiousness and severity of the virus have been changed in these two new mutated variants of Coronavirus.”

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