![Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, attends a news conference on the COVID-19 outbreak after the return of the team of the WHO-convened global study of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 in Geneva, Switzerland, February 12, 2021 [File: Christopher Black/WHO/Handout/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-02-12T182413Z_175861015_RC26RL9AKKAZ_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-CHINA-PROBE.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
WHO chief says a final and summary report will be issued simultaneously on the monthlong investigation in China.
Health
![A medical worker checks a person's temperature at the Matanda Hospital in Butembo, where the first patient infected with Ebola died, in the North Kivu province of Congo [File: Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/AP_21042685636097.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
WHO officials said a readiness assessment for Guinea’s neighbours showed gaps in their preparedness for Ebola outbreak.
![The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that the original drafts of the report had included that number, then more than 9,200 deaths, until Cuomo's aides said it should be taken out [Yuki Iwamura/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AP_21015711699880.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s aides allegedly pushed health officials to alter report on COVID deaths, US media report.
![In an open letter, a group of 26 scientists called on Thursday for a new international probe [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-02-13T104743Z_1095690727_RC2MRL9E019W_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-WHO-CHINA.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
UN health agency will not publish an interim report on its recent mission to Chinese city of Wuhan, the WSJ reports.
![Faced with shortages of doses during the early stages of the vaccine campaign that started in late December, the EU issued an export control system for COVID-19 vaccines [File: Alessandra Tarantino/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/AP_21046616550395.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The move affecting 250,000 doses reflects frustration within the bloc over the shortfall of promised vaccine deliveries.
![Nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 150 medical technicians - a group of highly skilled healthcare professionals who typically don’t have the labour protections afforded to nurses and doctors - have been negotiating their first union contract as part of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, and decided to strike Thursday [Courtesy: Sam Potter]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SamPotter.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Today’s strike by medical technicians in Oregon could be the beginning of a labour organising trend amid the pandemic.
![Indonesia is using the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for its mass vaccination programme but says it will allow private companies to secure their own vaccine supplies [Dedi Sinuhaji/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/h_56732930.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Health experts question plan to allow private companies to import vaccines to ‘speed up’ effort to reach herd immunity.
People in France and Germany shun Oxford-AstraZeneca shots in favour of the offering developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
![An estimated 70 percent of the health workforce has left the country, leaving just one Syrian doctor for every 10,000 civilians, the report found [File: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/11926fef9b5a4a0c8bbe7b6d40020f25_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
International Rescue Committee report shows the devastating impact a decade of war has had on healthcare in Syria.
![Japan conducts about 40,000 PCR tests a day, restricting tests to people who are symptomatic or who have had a high chance of being infected [File: Issei Kato/ Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-02-02T064200Z_956543459_RC26KL9NFT3S_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-JAPAN-TESTING.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
During pandemic’s course, Japan performed about 60 tests per 1,000 people, compared with 130 in S Korea and 1,000 in US.
![An injured man being treated by volunteer medical responders after a crackdown by security forces in Myanmar's southern city of Dawei on February 28. [Handout via AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_93X8D7.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Healthcare workers have set up mobile clinics to treat protesters but say their biggest challenge is ‘not to get shot’ .
![The first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses are offloaded from a plane during its arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, in Abuja, Nigeria on March 2, 2021 [Kola Sulaimon/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/000_9442V8.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Nigeria receives nearly four million Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, with healthcare and front-line workers first inoculated.
![Serbia was the first country in Europe to start inoculating its population with China's vaccines [File: Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/AP_21019467260855.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
China has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to countries around the globe.
![World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is too early for countries to rely solely on vaccines and abandon other measures [File: Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020-07-03T000000Z_1815950994_RC2SLH9RRB6M_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-WHO-TEDROS.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Cases are rising due to relaxing of health measures, circulation of variants and ‘people letting down their guard’.