We believe in WHO, says Harris EU agrees to keep borders open but restrict travels
VP Kamala says WHO vital to control Covid pandemic, building back better global health
Washington, Jan. 22: The Biden administration believes that the WHO is vital to controlling the spread of Covid-19 and building back better global health and pandemic preparedness, Vice President Kamala Harris has told WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a day after the US rejoined the UN health agency.
The US rejoined the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday in one of the first official orders of the Joe Biden presidency, reversing a key foreign policy decision his predecessor Donald Trump took last year after accusing the UN health agency of incompetence and bowing to Chinese pressure over the Coronavirus pandemic.
In April last year, as the Coronavirus pandemic was spreading across the globe, Trump cut off US funding to the WHO, saying it was “virtually controlled by China.” He then went further, triggering the process to pull the US completely out of the organisation.
The withdrawal was due to go into effect in July this year, but Biden’s order will cancel it. During her phone call on Thursday, Harris discussed the decision by the Biden administration to rejoin the WHO with the health agency’s Director-General Dr. Ghebreyesus.
Harris emphasised that she and Biden believe that the WHO is vital to controlling the spread of Covid-19 and building back better global health and pandemic preparedness, according to a readout of the call issued by the White House.
“The vice president and the director-general also discussed the resumption of the United States’ role in the global public health and humanitarian response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said.
Harris also stressed on the Biden-Harris administration’s strong support for efforts to strengthen the global Covid-19 response, mitigate its secondary impacts, including
IN APRIL last year, as the Coronavirus pandemic was spreading across the globe, Trump cut off US funding to the WHO, saying it was “virtually controlled by China.”
on women and girls, and advance global health security to prevent the next outbreak from becoming an epidemic or pandemic.
She emphasised the importance of making the US safer through global cooperation, the White House said. Ghebreyesus thanked Harris for the call and congratulated her and Biden on their inauguration.
Both the director-general and the vice president reiterated that they look forward to meeting in person. Earlier in the day, Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, while addressing the WHO executive board meeting said the US will cease the drawdown of its staff seconded to the agency. —
Brussels, Jan. 22: European Union leaders agreed that borders should remain open and assessed more measures to counter the spread of Coronavirus variants during a video summit as the bloc’s top disease control official said urgent action was needed to stave off a new wave of hospitalisations and deaths.
Expressing great concern about the virus’mutations, the 27 leaders looked at further border restrictions like limits on all non-essential travel, better tracking of mutations and improving coordination of lockdowns.
Though worried that another surge of deaths across the EU was imminent, they could not immediately agree on whether or not to halt nonessential travel.
“It is of great importance not to travel, but you cannot immediately enforce this legally,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after the conference call. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen insisted on the importance of keeping borders open to ensure that goods continue to move smoothly while introducing measures “that keep us all safe.”
She said leaders discussed a proposal to introduce new trans-border “dark red zones” where infections rates are particularly high and where all non-essential travel should be discouraged. Travellers from these areas could be required to undergo tests before their departure and be placed in isolation upon arrival in another location. Von der Leyen said the commission will make precise recommendations to member states in the coming days.
Some 4,00,000 EU citizens have died from Covid-19related causes since the start of the pandemic, and the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Andrea Ammon, said that “an increasing number of infections will lead to higher hospitalisation and death rates across all age groups, particularly for those in older age groups.”
In a study published just before the summit, the ECDC warned of the high dangers of the new variants, like those initiating in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. —