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Senior UN officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres, took part in a High-Level event at UN Headquarters in New York on Friday, noting the encouraging progress that has been made towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic, while acknowledging that work still needs to be done to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.

Mr. Guterres celebrated rising vaccination coverage worldwide, particularly among high-risk populations, and the fact that, on average, countries have vaccinated around three-quarters of health care workers and older people.

COVID-19 measures are increasingly integrated into routine health programmes, and new antiviral drugs are about to become available.

Gaps remain

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However, gaps in coverage and protection remain, said Mr, Guterres. There is minimal vaccine booster coverage in all countries, and there are low vaccination rates in poorer countries. He also warned of a “shadow pandemic” of vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation, that needs to be tackled.

The UN chief also called for testing rates to be drastically improved, and for countries to ensure they are fully prepared for future pandemics.

“Making progress towards closing these gaps is what today is all about, declared Mr. Guterres. “It’s time to build political momentum to finish the job on COVID-19”.

‘We have never been in a better position to end COVID-19’

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of UN health agency WHO, has had to deliver many downbeat remarks since the beginning of the pandemic but, at Friday’s event, he was able to send a remarkably positive message.

With so many people vaccinated, and reported deaths from the virus at the lowest levels since the beginning of the pandemic, the international community, he said, has “never been in a better position to end COVID-19 as a global health emergency”.

However, Tedros echoed the concerns raised by Mr. Guterres, and referred to a report, issued on Thursday by the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator Council, which revealed that most low and middle-income countries have virtually no access to new antivirals.

Whilst the Accelerator is making progress, providing almost 1.5 billion vaccine doses, and supporting 68 new countries to reach vaccination coverage of at least 40 per cent, much more needs to be done, said Tedros: “we’re not there yet, but the end is in sight”.

‘Step by step, we are making progress ‘

The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, has played a key role in making sure vaccines are administered to those who need it, especially the most vulnerable.

In his opening remarks, Omar Abdi, the UNICEF Deputy Executive-Director, reminded those at the event of some of the achievements of her agency in tackling the health crisis.

These include the administering of more than 12.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines; financing and implementing the largest ultra-cold chain scale-up in history (UNICEF financed and delivered 800 ultra-cold chain freezers to nearly 70 countries in 2021 alone); and shipping over 1.2 billion items of personal protective equipment to protect frontline and healthcare workers and others in 142 countries.

“Step by step, we are making progress”, said Ms. Russell, “but we need to keep up the momentum to protect the world against future surges and new variants. Because as long as coverage continues to be inequitable, the pandemic will continue, and so will the serious risks it poses to children”.

The head of UNICEF drew the audience’s attention to some of the knock-on effects of the pandemic on children who, she said, figure amongst its biggest victims, having faced the devastating impacts on health, education and well-being.

Routine jabs plummet

Routine vaccinations for other diseases have been significantly disrupted; Ms. Russell pointed to data from WHO and UNICEF which show that 25 million children did not receive the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis – a marker for immunization coverage in general – in 2021.

“This is the largest, sustained drop in the rates of routine childhood vaccinations in a generation”, she warned, “potentially wiping out 30 years of progress if we don’t get back on track.”

SOURCE: UN News. Headline photo: Stock image.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Humedad periferal asociada a la Tormenta Tropical Ian ahora sobre el centro del Caribe al sur de La Española, continuará afectando la región esta mañana, trayendo aguaceros y tronadas aisladas sobre las aguas costeras y partes del este y sur.

Los estimados de radar fueron mínimos y menos de un décimo de pulgada con la lluvia más fuerte. El viento estuvo generalmente leve y variable. Las temperaturas mínimas estuvieron en los altos 70s a cerca de 80 grados en áreas costeras y los altos 60s y bajos 70s en elevaciones altas.

Se espera que el tiempo se vaya secando tarde en la mañana y temprano en la tarde a medida que una masa de aire más seca se acerque a la región para el resto del día. Sin embargo, humedad disponible y los efectos locales se deben combinar para generar aguaceros en la tarde y tronadas aisladas son posibles. Las máximas estarán en los altos 80s y bajos 90s en áreas costeras y en los altos 70s y bajos 80s en elevaciones altas.

El oleaje continuará de hasta 6 pies en el Canal de la Mona y de 5 pies o menos en el resto del área, con vientos del este de 10 a 15 nudos. Existe riesgo moderado de corrientes marinas para la mayoría de las playas.

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The woman was asking a question at a town hall meeting in New York attended by Prime Minister Gaston Browne and Cabinet colleagues. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP

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Black Immigrant Daily News

by Khaila Gentle

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Sept. 21, 2022

Many will remember Mr. Owen Morrison as being a humble and patient man. He was one of the longest serving educators at the Belize Technical College (BTC), and the former head of the BTC Business Department, Mrs. Jennifer Hyde, remembers him as an influential man who was “good in every way.”

Mrs. Hyde spoke with us over the phone and recounted her memories of Morrison, who she says left a lasting impression on countless persons, students and teachers alike.

More than just an educator, he was also an advocate—for the poor, for his students, and for his fellow teachers. And the school at which he taught, The Belize Technical College, known as simply “Technical” to many, was more than just a school to him. On August 8th, 2004, he wrote in this newspaper that he was sad, and even bitter at times, to see the decline of what was once Belize’s largest public tertiary-level educational institution.

“The institution had been the only tertiary institution where poor people in this country were able to afford a decent, relevant, and alternative education in the Arts, Science, and Technology fields,” he said, and later went on to call the BTC a landmark and a crucial part of Belize’s history.

Former vice principal of the Belize Technical College, Ms. Georgia Belisle, also spoke with us. She said that she will always remember Mr. Morrison as the principal who was more a team leader than a boss.

“He was always respectful to your ideas. If he liked them, he was prepared to go to bat for you at all times. You always had his support, and we always supported him, too. It was a joy to work with him,” she told us.

Since his passing on the evening of September 20, there has been an outpouring of stories on how the beloved educator became a household name throughout Belize up until his retirement in 1991.

He was charismatic, energetic, and well-qualified for the task of managing the educational needs of hundreds of students at a time, wrote BTC alumni Karl E. Villanueva, who hails Morrison as one of the finest administrators of his time.

He was also a humorous man, and as Miss Belisle put it, a Jack-of-all-trades—willing to take up the roles of carpenter, plumber, mechanic, and even staff-party bouncer when needed.

“We always used to tell him he should write a book, because he was always telling us stories about when he was young and his exploits—humorous stories,” she said.

Owen Howard Morrison was fine educator. More than that, he was a fine man. AMANDALA sends our deepest condolences to all his friends, family members, former students, and former colleagues.

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