World Health Organization

The world has surpassed 500 million officially recorded COVID-19 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Other researchers estimate nearly half of the world’s total population has likely been infected at least once with SARS-CoV-2.

The World Health Organization has recently identified a new SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern. Emerging out of southern Africa the variant has been dubbed Omicron and initial analysis indicates it carries a large number of novel mutations.

A new analysis by the World Health Organization has estimated six in seven COVID-19 cases have gone undetected in Africa. The report indicates the real number of cases could be 60 million and a program to increase testing capacity has been proposed.

Following a successful pilot study encompassing nearly one million children the World Health Organization is now recommending widespread use of the world's first malaria vaccine across all sub-Saharan Africa.

A new article published in The Lancet is arguing against broadly administering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots. The article is co-authored by two of the FDA's top vaccine advisors, both of whom recently announced they were stepping down from their positions.

The director of the WHO has said he is “appalled” at the extent of vaccine inequity spreading across the world. Global vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX has reported it is falling short of its distribution milestones as wealthy countries take most doses.

For the first time in several months the World Health Organization has added another SARS-CoV-2 variant to its official tracking list. Given the Greek Alphabet letter Mu, this newly defined “variant of interest” has been detected in 40 countries.

Over five billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have now been administered around the world. This milestone comes eight months after vaccinations commenced, however, the World Health Organization has expressed concern over the disparity in vaccine distribution.

The WHO is launching a large-scale global clinical trial testing whether a trio of pre-existing drugs can treat those hospitalized with severe COVID-19. The project serves as the new phase of WHO’s Solidarity project.

The WHO has called for a global halt on vaccine boosters until at least the end of September to prioritize supplies for poorer nations with unvaccinated vulnerable populations. The goal is to have 10 percent of every country vaccinated within two months.

In the space of a few months the Delta variant has become the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 around the world. But what comes after Delta, how are new variants being named, and what is a "Variant of Concern"?

With the WHO warning Delta could be just the beginning of SARS-CoV-2's evolution, a modeling study indicates high levels of virus transmission in conjunction with middling vaccination rates is an ideal scenario for new variants to emerge.