INFOSAN Quarterly Summary, 2020 #1

Food safety incidents During the first quarter of 2020, the INFOSAN Secretariat was involved in 38 food safety incidents involving 109 WHO Member States and 9 territories of WHO Member States. There were 25 incidents involving a biological hazard (Salmonella spp. [8], Listeria monocytogenes [5], Norovirus [3] Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli [2], Clostridium botulinum [2]…

Hard fought gains in immunization coverage at risk without critical health services, warns WHO

Shutting down immunization services in the COVID-19 pandemic risks triggering a resurgence of diseases that can be prevented with safe and effective vaccines, warns WHO in the lead-up to World Immunization Week (24-30 April).  When immunization services are disrupted, even for brief periods during emergencies, the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, such as measles and…

Lifting restrictions ‘too quickly’ could lead to deadly resurgence of Covid-19: WHO

GENEVA: World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned here on Friday that lifting restrictions “too quickly” could lead to a deadly resurgence of Covid-19, Xinhua news agency reported. Noting at a regular press briefing that “some countries are already planning the transition out of stay-at-home restrictions,“ the WHO chief warned that lifting restrictions…

MCO: Companies given permission to operate told to adhere to guidelines

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Chamber Of Commerce And Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) urges all companies and industries that are allowed to operate in stages during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period to fully comply with the standard operating procedure and guidelines to ensure public health is not compromised. The chamber said the government’s protection/prevention measures…