Coronavirus global health emergency

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WHO: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working closely with global experts, governments and partners to rapidly expand scientific knowledge on this new virus, to track the spread and virulence of the virus, and to provide advice to countries and individuals on measures to protect health and prevent the spread of this outbreak. 

WHO’s response in countries

Find out how the WHO is working across its 149 country offices to assist communities all over the world.

What is a Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases. Find out more about this novel coronavirus (nCoV) that has not been previously identified in humans.

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FAQs

What are the symptoms of COVID-19? How can I protect myself? Should I worry about COVID-19? Get the answers.

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Recent additions to the website

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Information from the UN System

Everyone is talking about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Be sure to get your facts from reliable sources. The UN offices, field missions, agencies, funds and programmes are providing new information as it becomes available. Here are some of their resource pages.

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Information for UN personnel

The United Nations is closely monitoring the situation with the COVID-19 outbreak. This page features important advisories, guidelines, resources, and materials on the COVID-19 outbreak for all UN duty stations, offices, personnel and their families, visitors, and UN healthcare workers, as well as advice on maintaining wellness. It is updated with the latest available information.

 

Meetings

Get information on UN meetings that are being held virtually due to COVID-19.

 

Documents

General Assembly resolutions

Secretary-General's reports

 

Video

Broadcast-quality video 

UN WebTV COVID-19 playlist

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Communication Materials

Social media posters, advice for patients and health workers and key scenarios for printing

Novel Coronavirus Situation

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Explore

13 August - The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all countries “to put differences aside” in order to speed up efforts to understand where and how the COVID-19 virus started – including the unproven suggestion that it was manufactured in a laboratory.

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11 August 2021 - Three new candidate drugs are being tested in the latest phase of global Solidarity clinical trials to find effective treatments against COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced.

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5 August 2021 - The remarkable and rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines offers “great hope” that the devastating pandemic can be overcome, the UN chief told the first International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation, but everyone must be reached everywhere, “as quickly as possible”. 

 

Science in 5 is a video and podcast series reflecting WHO’s conversations in science. WHO experts explain the science related to COVID-19 in each 5 minute episode. Watch all episodes

No one is safe until everyone is safe. The recent surge of infections in India was a wake up call for the world, as less than 1% of vaccines have reached the developing world. This is why UNICEF is calling on wealthy countries to donate their excess COVID-19 vaccines now.

Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, like COVID-19, bird flu, malaria or Ebola. Nuclear-derived techniques can be used to track pathogens as they move from animals to humans to help the world respond better to any future outbreaks.