WHO declared COVID-19 a global emergency 'at the right time': chief

01:23, April 23, 2020

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  Fighting COVID-19 pandemic: China firmly supports UN's leading role

  Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN. ·China firmly supports the WHO in playing a leading role in the global anti-epidemic cooperation. ·China actively contributes to the Security Council's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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  Global COVID-19 death toll reported to WHO exceeds 200,000

  A health worker collects sample for coronavirus testing from a worker at a locked down wet market as one of its traders tested positive for COVID-19 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Tuesday, April 28, 2020. (Photo: AP)GENEVA, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Globally, over 200,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of Tuesday, according to the latest WHO figure.The WHO COVID-19 dashboard updated at 16:00 CET (1400 GMT) Tuesday showed that so far the WHO has received reports of 2,954,222 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 202,597 deaths worldwide.The United States ranked the top on the WHO dashboard with the highest death toll at 49,170, followed by Italy with 26,977 deaths.The other countries with death toll topping 20,000 on the dashboard are France (23,261 deaths), Spain (23,190 deaths) and the United Kingdom (21,092 deaths).

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  Global leaders launch WHO plan to beat COVID-19, US not involved

  WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (File photo: CGTN)World leaders pledged on Friday to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19 and to share them around the globe, but the U.S. did not take part in the launch of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative.French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were among those who joined a video conference to launch what the WHO had billed as a "landmark collaboration" to fight the pandemic.The aim is to speed development of safe and effective drugs, tests and vaccines to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19 – and ensure equal access to treatments for rich and poor.Global initiative"We are facing a common threat, which we can only defeat with a common approach," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as the virtual meeting got under way."Experience has told us that even when tools are available, they have not been equally available to all. We cannot allow that to happen."European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the objective at a global pledging effort in early May would be to raise 7.5 billion euros ($8.10 billion) to ramp up work on prevention, diagnostics and treatment."This is a first step only, but more will be needed in the future," Von der Leyen told the conference.Macron said: "We will continue now to mobilize all G7 and G20 countries so they get behind this initiative. And I hope well manage to reconcile around this joint initiative both China and the U.S., because this is about saying: the fight against COVID-19 is a common human good and there should be no division in order to win this battle."Ramaphosa, chairman of the African Union, warned that the continent – with its generally poor standards of healthcare – was "extremely vulnerable to the ravages of this virus and is in need of support."Leaders from Asia, the M...