UNICEF
AP PHOTOS: Fear and grief grip Gaza anew amid familiar glare
To the outside world, the scenes of rocket fire, bombing raids and angry protests in the Middle East this week may have looked familiar. To the people of Israel and especially the Gaza Strip, they were anything but routine.
Families once again fled or found themselves homeless, anguished parents mourned dead children and journalists evacuated offices before they were destroyed as the Islamic militant group Hamas and the Israeli military sought to inflict as much damage on the other as they could this week - before the fighting intensified further or they were pressured into a cease-fire.
Read:The Latest: China calls for UN council action, slams US
The Gaza side, which is controlled by Hamas, absorbed the overwhelming brunt of the death toll: 145 people, including 41 children and 23 women, as of Saturday night, according to the Health Ministry of the narrow, crowded territory where 2 million Palestinians live. Those killed included a family of six on Friday and 10 members of the same family on Saturday.
Unicef lauds release of 345 detained children in Bangladesh
Unicef on Thursday commended the recent release of 345 children from detention centres in Bangladesh by virtual courts.
“This marks an important step towards children’s access to justice in Bangladesh and places the protection, safety and best interests of children first,” said Unicef Representative in Bangladesh Tomoo Hozumi on the release of the children from detention centres.
Also Read:UNICEF for maintaining positive child immunization trend in Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Supreme Court established the use of virtual courts in May 2020 with support from Unicef.
Since then, over 1,400 children have been released from detention centres thanks to virtual courts. Less than 0.5 per cent of these children have reoffended following their release.
“Detention takes its heavy toll on children’s mental and physical health so unnecessary institutionalisation must be avoided. Unicef calls for the introduction of non-custodial solutions for children who are victims, witnesses or accused of crimes,” Hozumi said in the statement.
The Unicef Representative in Bangladesh said all children who can safely return to their families or appropriate alternative care should be released from detention centres.
“This is particularly important during the current pandemic lockdown when centre staffing is limited and children face heightened risk of infection, neglect and abuse in the overcrowded detention centres.
Hozumi said Bangladesh has demonstrated a strong leadership during the pandemic by embracing judicial reforms for the benefit of children and their rights. “We must continue to build on this momentum by expediting child-related cases which are pending in the justice system and keeping thousands of children in detention.”
Also Read: Mental health alert for 332 million children linked to COVID-19 lockdown policies: UNICEF
Unicef lends its full support to the government of Bangladesh, the Supreme Court Special Committee on Child Rights, and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to improve children’s access to justice, Hozumi added.
“By strengthening the application of the Children’s Act 2013, we can prevent child detention in Bangladesh, including at the police level.”
Myanmar’s military disappearing young men to crush uprising
Myanmar’s security forces moved in and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Darkness swallowed the block.
Huddled inside her home in this neighborhood of Yangon, 19-year-old Shwe dared to peek out her window into the inky night. A flashlight shone back, and a man’s voice ordered her not to look.
Two gunshots rang out. Then a man’s scream: “HELP!” When the military’s trucks finally rolled away, Shwe and her family emerged to look for her 15-year-old brother, worried about frequent abductions by security forces.
“I could feel my blood thumping,” she says. “I had a feeling that he might be taken.”
Across the country, Myanmar’s security forces are arresting and forcibly disappearing thousands of people, especially boys and young men, in a sweeping bid to break the back of a three-month uprising against a military takeover. In most cases, the families of those taken do not know where they are, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than 3,500 arrests since February.
Also Read:UN calls for return to democracy in Myanmar, end to violence
UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, is aware of around 1,000 cases of children or young people who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, many without access to lawyers or their families. Though it is difficult to get exact data, UNICEF says the majority are boys.
It is a technique the military has long used to instill fear and to crush pro-democracy movements. The boys and young men are taken from homes, businesses and streets, under the cover of night and sometimes in the brightness of day.
Some end up dead. Many are imprisoned and sometimes tortured. Many more are missing.
“We’ve definitely moved into a situation of mass enforced disappearances,” says Matthew Smith, cofounder of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has collected evidence of detainees being killed in custody. “We’re documenting and seeing widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests.”
The AP is withholding Shwe’s full name, along with those of several others, to protect them from retaliation by the military.
The autobody shop in Shwe’s neighborhood was a regular hangout for local boys. On the night of March 21, her brother had gone there to chill out like he usually did.
As Shwe approached the shop, she saw it had been ransacked. Frantic, she and her father scoured the building for any sign of their beloved boy.
But he was gone, and the floor was covered in blood.
Ever since the military seized control in February, the conflict in Myanmar has become increasingly bloody. Security forces have killed more than 700 people, including a boy as young as 9.
In the meantime, the faces of the missing have flooded the Internet in growing numbers. Online videos show soldiers and police beating and kicking young men as they’re shoved into vans, even forcing captives to crawl on all fours and hop like frogs.
Recently, photos of young people detained by security forces also have begun circulating online and on military-controlled Myawaddy TV, their faces bloodied, with clear markings of beatings and possible torture. The military’s openness in broadcasting such photos and brutalizing people in daylight is one more sign that its goal is to intimidate.
At least 3,500 people have been detained since the military takeover began, more than three-quarters of whom are male, according to an analysis of data collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors deaths and arrests. Of the 419 men whose ages were recorded in the group’s database, nearly two-thirds are under age 30, and 78 are teenagers.
Nearly 2,700 of the detainees are being held at undisclosed locations, according to an AAPP spokesman. The group says its numbers are likely an undercount.
“The military are trying to turn civilians, striking workers, and children into enemies,” says Ko Bo Kyi, AAPP’s joint secretary. “They think if they can kill off the boys and young men, then they can kill off the revolution.”
After receiving questions from The Associated Press, the military, known as the Tatmadaw, called a Zoom press conference, during which it dubbed the AAPP a “baseless organization,” suggested its data was inaccurate, and denied security forces are targeting young men.
“The security forces are not arresting based on genders and ages,” said Capt. Aye Thazin Myint, a military spokeswoman. “They are only detaining anyone who is rioting, protesting, causing unrest, or any actions along those lines.”
Some of those snatched by security forces were protesting. Some have links to the military’s rival political party, most notably Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the elected government that the military toppled and is now under house arrest. Others are taken for no discernable reason. They are typically charged with Section 505(A) of the Penal Code, which, in part, criminalizes comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.”
Both the military and police — who fall under the Tatmadaw’s command via the Ministry of Home Affairs — have been involved in the arrests and disappearances, sometimes working in tandem, according to interviews with detainees and families. Experts believe that suggests a coordinated strategy.
“The Myanmar police force and the Tatmadaw moved in in a very deliberate way, in a coordinated way, in similar ways, in disparate locations, which to us would indicate that they were working according to orders,” says Smith of Fortify Rights. “It would appear as though there was ... some national level communication and coordination taking place.”
Manny Maung, a Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch, says one woman she spoke with described being viciously beaten by police until what looked like a senior military official told them to stop.
“They’re definitely following orders from military officials,” Maung says. “And whether they’re coordinating — they’re certainly turning up to places together.”
So desperate for information are the loved ones of the lost that some families have resorted to a grim experiment: They send food into the prisons and hope if it isn’t sent back out, that means their relatives are still inside.
Myanmar human rights activist Wai Hnin Pwint Thon is intimately acquainted with the Tatmadaw’s tactics. Her father, famed political activist Mya Aye, was arrested during a 1988 uprising against military rule, and the family waited months before they learned he was in prison.
He was arrested again on the first day of this year’s military takeover. For two months, the military gave Wai Hnin Pwint Thon’s family no information on his whereabouts. On April 1, the family learned he was being held at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison.
“I can’t imagine families of young people who are 19, 20, 21, in prison… We are this worried and we’re used to this situation,” she says. “I’m trying to hold onto hope, but the situation is getting worse every day.”
Mee, a 27-year-old villager in the northern region of Mandalay, watched as children on motorbikes raced past her house toward the woods. Not long after, the village elders arrived with a dire warning: All the boys must leave and get somewhere safe. The soldiers might be coming.
Just two hours later, Mee says, the elders asked the girls to hide, too.
The military’s scare tactics have proven enormously effective. In villages and cities across the country, residents regularly take turns holding night watches, banging pots and pans or yelling to neighbors from the street if soldiers or police are spotted.
“I am more afraid of being arrested than getting shot,” says one 29-year-old man who was arrested, beaten and later released, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. “I have a chance of dying on the spot with just one shot. But being arrested, I am afraid that they would torture me.”
Fearing for her life on that March afternoon, Mee and hundreds of fellow villagers fled to pineapple farms in the surrounding hills. When she arrived, she saw scores of people from other villages hiding in the forest.
That night, as mosquitos swarmed and sounds from the forest haunted them, the women stayed inside a small bamboo tent while the boys took turns standing guard. No one slept.
Mee was terrified but not surprised. Many of the villagers had run from the military and hidden in the woods before.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she says.
Also Read:UN report says Myanmar poverty could double from coup chaos
For decades, the Tatmadaw has used arbitrary arrests, disappearances, forced labor and other abuses to crush pro-democracy movements and suppress minorities, including its notoriously brutal 2017 campaign of persecution against Rohingya Muslims.
“Sometimes communities are asked to provide a number of young men on a ‘voluntary’ basis; sometimes they are taken,” Laetitia van den Assum, a former diplomat and a member of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, said in an e-mail.
Arbitrary arrests continue across the country daily. Just two weeks earlier, a few minutes away from Mee’s village, 24-year-old philosophy student Ko Ko was walking home from a protest with a friend when they were arrested. His parents learned of their imprisonment from friends of friends, not officials.
More than a month later, his parents still haven’t heard from their only son, says Han, a neighbor. He’s part of an unlucky cohort: at least 44 people taken from the town are yet to be released, Han says.
While many of the young men in Mee’s village returned home after two nights in the pineapple fields, some continue to sleep there. Mee has since gone back to her village.
Whenever she sees a soldier, she runs. But her fear has largely given way to fury.
“I was angry that night, and I am still angry,” she says. “It’s so frustrating that the people who are supposed to be protecting our lives, our safety, our livelihoods and our homes are the people who are chasing us and killing us. … We are helpless.”
The glass was shattering, and there was nowhere left for the 21-year-old university student to run. The soldiers were smashing through the front doors of the house in Mandalay.
The chaos of such raids is usually followed by a sinister silence, with the families of the taken rarely hearing from officials. But the accounts of some survivors who dare to speak about their ordeals help fill the void of what often happens next.
The student, who asked that his name be withheld out of fear of retaliation, had taken refuge in the house along with around 100 others after security forces stormed a rally they were attending. The soldiers had thrown tear gas at them, forcing them to flee.
Now he and a half dozen others were cornered in a bathroom on the home’s second level. Downstairs, the security forces used a slingshot and the butt of a gun to break through the doors.
The soldiers began beating the boys they found inside, so viciously that a few of their heads cracked open. They urinated on one young man.
The student watched as the glass above the bathroom door imploded. “They are here!” the soldiers yelled, then burst in, guns drawn.
He bowed his head, since anyone who looked at the soldiers was kicked. The soldiers kicked him anyway, twice in the waist, and hit him twice in the head. As he was marched down the stairs, he saw a soldier with a gun standing on nearly every step.
He and around 30 other young men were arrested and ushered into a prison van. Both the military and police were there. The soldiers threatened to burn the van and tauntingly offered the detainees juice before throwing it at them.
When they arrived at the prison, the young man saw 400 to 500 people in the temporary holding area. The next day, he was charged with Section 505(A) of the penal code. He and around 50 others spent nine days jammed into one room.
There were only two toilets. They were allowed out of the cell twice a day to clean themselves. The same water was used for showering, drinking, washing dishes and using the toilet.
When the young man learned he was being transferred to the main prison, he wanted to cry. A few days before his arrest, he had been looking at missing persons posts on social media. Now he realized most of those people were probably in prison like him.
The young man had good reason to be frightened.
“People are disappearing and turning up dead,” says Maung, of Human Rights Watch. “We have had primary reports, also, of torture while they’re in custody.”
The group found that some people detained inside Insein prison were subjected to beatings, stress positions and severe interrogation tactics, up until March 4, Maung says. After that, guards began taking prisoners to second locations and torturing them, then returning them to Insein.
In Mandalay, the young man’s family was sick with worry. Some of his friends told them he had been arrested; the authorities never called them.
His family sent food into the prison for him. But even when it wasn’t returned, they couldn’t be sure he was inside. They heard reports about protesters being tortured. His sisters cried constantly.
Thirteen days after his arrest, the young man was allowed ten minutes to speak with his sister.
A week later, an official ordered him to pack his things. In shock, he realized he was being released.
There was no time to say goodbye to his friends. The officials took videos and photos of him and around 20 others, and told them to sign statements promising they wouldn’t break the law again. Then they were set free.
He didn’t feel lucky — he felt horrible. He didn’t understand why he’d been singled out for release while his friends were still stuck inside.
“None of us really feel safe living our normal lives now. For me now, I have reservations walking alone outside even in my neighborhood,” he says. “And also, I feel worried to see the parents of my friends in the neighborhood, because I am out — and their children are not.”
Back in Yangon, Shwe stared at the puddles of blood on the floor of the shop where her baby brother had been. It looked as if the security forces had half-heartedly tried to wash it away, but red pools remained.
Maybe the blood wasn’t his, she told herself.
Shwe’s brother and three other young men from the shop had been hauled away. Neighbors told the family that both police and soldiers were there. The neighbors said the security forces may have targeted the boys because they spotted someone inside the shop with a steel dart slingshot.
At 2 a.m., a police officer called to say Shwe’s brother was at a military hospital and had been shot in the hand. They later learned security forces had shot another young man’s finger during the raid.
Shwe says her family told the police that her brother was underage. The officer, she says, reassured them that because he was a minor, he probably wouldn’t be charged.
Around 7 a.m., the family went to the hospital to bring him food. But their pleas to see him were rejected. Shwe and her family were later told that he was being moved to a prison hospital.
Also Read: Myanmar airstrikes target ethnic forces on 2 fronts
Then, on the night of March 27, came the news that stunned them: Her brother and the three others had been charged with possession of weapons, and sentenced to three years in prison.
They were allowed one brief phone call with him when he was first in the hospital, and nothing since. Shwe remembers hearing her brother tell their anguished mother, “Thar ah sin pyay tal.” I am OK.
Shwe has no idea if that is still true. She worries for her brother, a quiet boy who loves playing games. She worries, too, for their mother, who cries and cries, and for their father, who aches for his only son.
For now, they can do little more than wait and hope: That he won’t be beaten. That he will get a pardon. That the people of Myanmar will soon feel safe again.
“Even though we are all in distress, we try to look on the bright side that at least we know where he is,” she says. “We are lucky that he was only abducted.”
Vaccination Demand Observatory launched to address vaccine misinformation
To combat vaccine hesitancy worldwide, Public Good Projects (PGP), UNICEF and Yale Institute for Global Health launched the Vaccination Demand Observatory on Thursday.
As countries begin rolling out COVID-19 vaccination, public health experts know that the last inch -- getting the vaccine from vial to arm -- can be the hardest.
Public uncertainty in the current pandemic has been exacerbated by an “infodemic,” a confusing epidemic of information and misinformation.
The Vaccination Demand Observatory (The Observatory) is developing tools, training, technical support and research to equip in-country teams to mitigate the impact of misinformation and mistrust on all vaccines.
This programme is organized in three pillars: social listening analytics and insight generation, a training and education program to tackle challenges related to all vaccines, and a communications lab.
The Vaccine Acceptance Interventions Lab (VAIL) will draw upon behavioural and social research and insights from social listening to develop engaging, relevant content to fill information gaps.
Also read: Covid vaccine: UNICEF emphasises speed, simplicity to remove barriers
VAIL also will develop “inoculation” messages to vaccinate people against vaccine misinformation. The content and programs will be rapid field tested for tone, format and behavior change impact before being implemented.
“In these times of heightened anxiety and uncertainty, people have many perfectly reasonable questions and concerns about vaccines. But their search for answers may be confounded by huge information gaps and a miasma of mis- and disinformation,” says Dr. Angus Thomson, PhD, Senior Social Scientist for UNICEF.“We can’t address people’s concerns if we don’t first understand them. Then we must speak with - not at - people, where they are, about what matters to them. The Observatory will help empower countries to do this.”
Working much like a disease surveillance system, an Observatory-supported country programme will contextualize vaccine conversations, characterizing questions, concerns, and misinformation, to provide regular updates to local health agencies and partner organizations.
Unlike previous efforts, this programme is built around a “Field Infodemic Manager” rather than a dashboard. This manager will coordinate the listening, analytics, and identification and assessment of vaccine rumours and information gaps to provide real-time actionable insights and recommendations to the teams which are engaging with communities.
“Because local communication is key to the success of any vaccination program, we are focused on building local-level programs that are as powerful and sophisticated as any global system.
Each country on earth has its own cultural nuances. The Observatory system will entail both quantitative and qualitative methods for tracking and characterizing local vaccine narratives. Subsequent public health programs can then be customized to each country’s context, and evaluated by potential traction and impact,” says Dr Joe Smyser, PhD, MSPH, Chief Executive Officer of PGP.
Also read: Covid vaccines should be declared as global public goods: PM Hasina
UNICEF helps reach almost half of the world’s children with life-saving vaccines and those kids’ access to education, health and protection services has been severely disrupted by the pandemic.
UNICEF’s local-level footprint, through active community engagement, risk communication, social mobilization and partnership in countries around the world will be informed in real-time by this social listening programme.
UNICEF works through the Vaccination Demand Hub to coordinate its support to countries with other multilaterals, global partnerships, donors, non-governmental and civil society organizations.
As a first step, the Observatory released the Vaccine Misinformation Management Field Guide in December 2020.
This practical guide, available in 6 languages, aims to help organizations to address the global infodemic through the development of strategic and well-coordinated national action plans to rapidly counter vaccine misinformation and build demand for vaccination.
The Observatory’s first on-the-ground project is ongoing in multiple West African countries supporting UNICEF polio teams in the launch of a new oral polio vaccine.
Also read: Twitter cracks down on COVID vaccine misinformation
“Existing global-level vaccine social listening efforts lack the granularity for community-level insights, and focus on digital channels,” says Dr Thomson.
“Data equity is essential if countries are to reach every person with vaccines. The Observatory focuses on aggregating both online and offline listening sources, to ensure we also hear the voices of the digitally disenfranchised.”
As a first step to enhancing capabilities in countries, the Observatory has stood up regional listening dashboards that are being interpreted by Infodemic Managers.
But it is now seeking support to rapidly take these tools, training and technical assistance to countries as they manage COVID-19 and polio vaccine introductions, and work to sustain trust in routine immunization programs.
“We should expect the same rigor from vaccine acceptance science as we do from vaccine development science,” says Professor Saad B. Omer, MBBS MPH PhD, Director of Yale Institute for Global Health. “The Observatory brings together evidence-informed approaches to inoculate against misinformation and increase vaccine acceptance and demand.”
“We applaud the mobilization of funders to support the COVAX facility providing COVID-19 vaccines to over 100 countries. However, lack of investment in misinformation management and demand generation means we risk precious doses sitting unwanted and unused,” says Dr Smyser. “Current investment in this crucial work remains only a tiny fraction of a percent of the investment in producing and distributing vaccine doses.”
UNICEF for maintaining positive child immunization trend in Bangladesh
Despite initial disruptions during the first months of the pandemic, Bangladesh restored routine immunization services to pre-Covid-19 levels in June 2020 and has steadily maintained this coverage, says UNICEF.
In addition, the country successfully held a mass immunization caampaign for measles and rubella from December 2020 to January 2021 that reached 36 million children and overcame the additional challenges posed by Covid-19.
Now with the third and to date largest spike of Covid-19 in Bangladesh, working towards maintaining this positive child immunization trend will be key, according to UNICEF.
Also read: UNICEF hails immunization progress in Bangladesh amid pandemic
While immunization services have started to recover from disruptions caused by Covid-19, millions of children remain vulnerable to deadly diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance have warned during World Immunization Week, highlighting the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to improving vaccination access and uptake.
“Vaccines will help us end the Covid-19 pandemic but only if we ensure fair access for all countries, and build strong systems to deliver them,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General.
“And if we’re to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, we must ensure routine vaccination services are protected in every country in the world.”
A WHO survey has found that despite progress when compared to the situation in 2020, more than one-third of respondent countries (37%) still report experiencing disruptions to their routine immunization services.
Mass immunization campaigns are also disrupted.
According to new data, 60 of these lifesaving campaigns are currently postponed in 50 countries, putting around 228 million people - mostly children - at risk for diseases such as measles, yellow fever and polio.
Over half of the 50 affected countries are in Africa, highlighting protracted inequities in people’s access to critical immunization services.
Campaigns to immunize against measles, which is one of the most contagious diseases and can result in large outbreaks wherever people are unvaccinated, are the most impacted. Measles campaigns account for 23 of the postponed campaigns, affecting an estimated 140 million people. Many have now been delayed for over a year.
“Even before the pandemic, there were worrying signs that we were beginning to lose ground in the fight against preventable child illness, with 20 million children already missing out on critical vaccinations,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.
“The pandemic has made a bad situation worse, causing millions of more children to go unimmunized. Now that vaccines are at the forefront of everyone’s minds, we must sustain this energy to help every child catch up on their measles, polio and other vaccines. We have no time to waste. Lost ground means lost lives.”
As a result of gaps in vaccination coverage, serious measles outbreaks have recently been reported in countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and Yemen, while likely to occur elsewhere as growing numbers of children miss out on lifesaving vaccines, the agencies warn.
Also read: Bangladesh children: The silent victims of the virus
These outbreaks are happening in places already grappling with conflict situations as well as service disruptions due to ongoing response measures to Covid-19.
The supply of vaccines and other equipment is also essential for child vaccinations. Due to disruptions at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, UNICEF delivered 2.01 billion vaccine doses in 2020, compared to 2.29 billion in 2019.
“Millions of children across the world are likely to miss out on basic vaccines as the current pandemic threatens to unravel two decades of progress in routine immunization”, said Dr Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
“To support the recovery from Covid-19 and to fight future pandemics, we will need to ensure routine immunization is prioritized as we also focus on reaching children who do not receive any routine vaccines or zero-dose children. To do this, we need to work together – across development agencies, governments and civil society – to ensure that no child is left behind”.
New global immunization strategy aims to save over 50 million livesTo help tackle these challenges and support the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO UNICEF, Gavi and other partners today launched the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), an ambitious new global strategy to maximize the lifesaving impact of vaccines through stronger immunization systems.
The Agenda focuses on vaccination throughout life, from infancy through to adolescence and older age. If fully implemented, it will avert an estimated 50 million deaths, according to WHO - 75% of them in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Targets to be achieved by 2030 include:
Achieve 90% coverage for essential vaccines given in childhood and adolescence [i]Halve the number of children completely missing out on vaccines Complete 500 national or subnational introductions of new or under-utilized vaccines - such as those for Covid-19, rotavirus, or human papillomavirus (HPV).
To achieve IA2030’s ambitious goals, WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and partners are calling for bold action.World leaders and the global health and development community should make explicit commitments to IA2030 and invest in stronger immunization systems, with tailored approaches for fragile and conflict-affected countries.
Also read: Child Daycare Centre Bill 2021 placed in Parliament
Immunization is a vital element of an effective health care system, central to pandemic preparedness and response, and key to preventing the burden of multiple epidemics as societies reopen.
All countries should develop and implement ambitious national immunization plans that align with the IA2030 framework, and increase investments to make immunization services accessible to all.Donors and governments should increase investments in vaccine research and innovation, development, and delivery focused on the needs of underserved populations.
The pharmaceutical industry and scientists, working with governments and funders, should continue to accelerate vaccine R&D, ensure a continuous supply of affordable vaccines to meet global needs, and apply lessons from Covid-19 to other diseases.
Chandpur General Hospital to get oxygen plant
All necessary initiatives have been taken to install a dedicated medical oxygen generation plant at Chandpur General Hospital to meet the increasing demand for life-saving gas amid Covid-19 surge across the district.
The plant, funded by UNICEF, will have the capacity to supply 20 lakh millilitre of oxygen. The project will be implemented by Spectra International, under the direct supervision of the Health Ministry.
Read Indian capital gasps for oxygen - United News of Bangladesh
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni is also providing her assistance and guidance implementing the project, hospital Supervisor Dr Md Habib Ul Karim told UNB.
"At present, we have to bring oxygen cylinders from Cumilla as per the demand. Access time and money is spent in the process. This plant will meet the current demand in the district as well as will keep a reserve for 5/6 months,” said the hospital super.
UNICEF in association with Spectra International will install oxygen plants in 25 districts across the country, he added.
Read Liquid oxygen import from India suspended at Benapole
UNICEF envoy David Beckham leads global vaccination drive during Immunization Week
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and founder of the 7 Fund for UNICEF, David Beckham, is fronting a global initiative to inspire confidence in vaccines and encourage parents around the world to vaccinate their children against deadly diseases.
In a video released ahead of World Immunization Week, Beckham talks about the loss of everyday activities due to COVID-19, such as hugs with family, spending time with friends, and being with the people we love, and encourages parents to vaccinate themselves so that they can be safe.
He also urges families to ensure that their children are receiving routine vaccinations to protect them against diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio.
“In the last year, COVID-19 has shown us how much we take for granted but it has also reminded us about the power of vaccines,” said Beckham.
“Vaccines work, saving millions of lives every year. I have learned through my work with UNICEF just how important they are for the health of our loved ones. Yet too many children around the world don’t get the routine vaccines they need to be safe from deadly diseases. That’s why this World Immunization Week, I’m so proud to be joining UNICEF and partners to encourage parents to vaccinate themselves and their children.”
Also read: Covid vaccine: UNICEF emphasises speed, simplicity to remove barriers
Alongside Beckham, UNICEF Ambassadors and supporters Orlando Bloom, Sofia Carson, Olivia Colman, Angelique Kidjo, Jeremy Lin, Alyssa Milano, Jessie Ware and others will take part in a series of online conversations about vaccines, including with health care workers, teachers and vaccine experts from around the world.
The frontline workers from Benin, Indonesia, Jordan and Peru will share their knowledge and first-hand experience of the importance of vaccinating children against deadly diseases.
To help spread the word online about the effectiveness of vaccines, starting today, UNICEF will join with global partners and funders to rally parents, health workers and the public to become online advocates for vaccines.
For every like, share or comment on posts mentioning a UNICEF social media account and using the hashtag #VaccinesWork from now until the end of April, the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will donate US$ 1 to UNICEF – up to a total of US$5 million – to ensure all children get the life-saving vaccines they need.
Also read: COVID-19 vaccine distribution: Emirates joins with UNICEF
“After a year of lockdowns, empty classrooms, missed vaccinations, virtual birthday parties, and cancelled family dinners, people all over the world are now getting a COVID-19 vaccine or anxiously awaiting the moment when they will. And it’s an important reminder of the critical role other vaccines play in allowing us to live our everyday lives,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
“Whereas today we all know COVID-19 vaccines are the best hope we have of resuming our normal lives, what remains ‘normal’ for far too many children all over the world is no access to vaccines for any preventable diseases whatsoever. This is not a ‘normal’ to which we should return.”
Every year, 14 million infants and children globally do not receive any vaccines against preventable diseases, with many living in remote rural locations, conflict zones or slum settings and without access to other essential health services, said UNICEF.
In the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has made this situation even more dire, as pandemic-related lockdowns and supply disruptions threaten a devastating rise in preventable child deaths.
Also read: China ramps up vaccination drive with free eggs, other goods
World Immunization Week – celebrated every year in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
Using the theme ‘Vaccines bring us closer’, World Immunization Week 2021 will urge greater engagement around immunization globally to promote the importance of vaccination in bringing people together, and improving the health and wellbeing of everyone, everywhere, throughout life.
Online conversations with UNICEF Ambassadors will be shared on Facebook and Instagram and also available to download here throughout World Immunization Week.
Bangladesh elected member of UN's central drug policy-making body
Bangladesh has been elected member of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the UN’s central drug policy-making body, for a three-year term beginning from January 2022.
The "highly competitive" election of the CND, also a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), was held on Tuesday at the ECOSOC Management meeting.
Along with Bangladesh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Korea and Iran have also been elected to this body from the Asia Pacific Group.
“The election was highly competitive but Bangladesh managed to secure second highest (43) votes. This demonstrates the trust that the international community reposes on Bangladesh in the multilateral fora,” said Ambassador Rabab Fatima, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN after the election.
She said Bangladesh attaches high importance to addressing the global drug problem in all its dimensions.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the government has been taking strong measures at the national level, and working closely with others at the regional and international levels to address illicit drug trading, said the envoy.
Also read: Govt’s proper initiatives applauded globally: Hasan Mahmud
“As a member of the Commission, we would make every effort to foster international cooperation in combating the menace of drugs," said Ambassador Fatima.
Also read: UN chief lauds Bangladesh’s Covid mitigation efforts
Based in Vienna, the CND is a 53-member body that reviews and analyses the global drug situation, considering supply and demand reduction, and takes action through resolutions and decisions.
Bangladesh has also been re-elected member of the Executive Board of UNICEF and the Executive Board of UN Women for another term starting from January 2022 in the elections held at the ECOSOC Management meeting. The elections were also held on Tuesday.
Bangladesh is currently serving each of the two bodies as member.
The executive boards of these two important UN organisations are the main governing bodies.
Stalled at first jab: Vaccine shortages hit poor countries
As many as 60 countries, including some of the world’s poorest, might be stalled at the first shots of their coronavirus vaccinations because nearly all deliveries through the global program intended to help them are blocked until as late as June.
COVAX, the global initiative to provide vaccines to countries lacking the clout to negotiate for scarce supplies on their own, has in the past week shipped more than 25,000 doses to low-income countries only twice on any given day. Deliveries have all but halted since Monday.
During the past two weeks, according to data compiled daily by UNICEF, fewer than 2 million COVAX doses in total were cleared for shipment to 92 countries in the developing world — the same amount injected in Britain alone.
On Friday, the head of the World Health Organization slammed the “shocking imbalance” in global COVID-19 vaccination. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said that while one in four people in rich countries had received a vaccine, only one in 500 people in poorer countries had gotten a dose.
The vaccine shortage stems mostly from India’s decision to stop exporting vaccines from its Serum Institute factory, which produces the overwhelming majority of the AstraZeneca doses that COVAX counted on to supply around a third of the global population at a time coronavirus is spiking worldwide.
Also read: Shocking imbalance in Covid vaccine distribution: WHO
COVAX will only ship vaccines cleared by WHO, and countries are increasingly impatient. Supplies are dwindling in some of the first countries to receive COVAX shipments, and the expected delivery of second doses in the 12-week window currently recommended is now in doubt. In a statement, the vaccine alliance known as GAVI told The Associated Press that 60 countries are affected by the delays.
In vaccination tents set up at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, many of those who arrived for their first jabs were uneasy about when the second would arrive.
“My fear if I don’t get the second dose, my immune system is going to be weak, hence I might die,” said Oscar Odinga, a civil servant.
Internal WHO documents obtained by the AP show the uncertainty about deliveries “is causing some countries to lose faith in the COVAX (effort).” That is prompting WHO to consider speeding up its endorsement of vaccines from China and Russia, which have not been authorized by any regulators in Europe or North America.
The WHO documents show the U.N. agency is facing questions from COVAX participants about allotments in addition to “uncertainty about whether all those who were vaccinated in round 1 are guaranteed a second dose.”
WHO declined to respond specifically to the issues raised in the internal materials but has previously said countries are “very keen” to get vaccines as soon as possible and insisted it hasn’t heard any complaints about the process.
Also read: Are some Covid-19 vaccines more effective than others?
Concern over the link between the AstraZeneca shot and rare blood clots has also “created nervousness both around its safety and efficacy,” WHO noted. Among its proposed solutions is a decision to “expedite review of additional products” from China and Russia.
WHO said last month it might be possible to greenlight the Chinese vaccines by the end of April.
Some experts have noted that Sinopharm and Sinovac, two Chinese-made vaccines, lack published data, and there are reports of people needing a third dose to be protected.
“If there is something that we miss from not having thoroughly evaluated the risks of serious adverse events from these vaccines, that would undermine the confidence in all the good products that we’re using that we know are safe,” said Dora Curry, director of health equity and rights at CARE International.
Other experts worried that delays could erode faith in governments that were particularly efficient in their vaccination programs and were counting on second doses soon.
“In the absence of high vaccination coverage globally, we risk dragging out the pandemic for several more years,” said Lavanya Vasudevan, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute. “Every day that the virus is in circulation is an opportunity for it to mutate into a more deadly variant.”
Also read: COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
Earlier this month, the WHO appealed to rich countries to urgently share 10 million doses to meet the U.N. target of starting COVID-19 vaccinations in every country within the first 100 days of the year. So far, countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to COVAX. But there are simply no doses to buy, and no country has agreed to immediately share what it has.
Bilateral donations of doses tend to go along political lines, rather than to countries with the most infections, and they aren’t nearly enough to compensate for the goals that COVAX has set out. Think Global Health, a data site managed by the Council on Foreign Relations, identified 19 countries that have donated a total of 27.5 million doses to 102 nations as of Thursday.
“You can make a strong argument that we’re better off making donations in crisis and getting the pandemic under control than vaccinating low-risk groups at home,” said Thomas Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Bollyky said COVAX was both a great disappointment and the only available option for most the world.
According to the International Rescue Committee, COVID-19 cases and deaths last month surged in numerous crisis-hit countries: by 322% in Kenya, 379% in Yemen and 529% in northeast Syria.
On Thursday, the agencies behind COVAX — WHO, vaccines alliance GAVI and CEPI, a coalition for epidemic preparedness — celebrated their delivery of 38 million lifesaving vaccines to more than 100 countries.
Brook Baker, a vaccines expert at Northeastern University, said the laudatory message was misplaced.
Also read: Countries worldwide hit new records for virus cases, deaths
“Celebrating doses sufficient for only 19 million people, or 0.25% of global population, is tone deaf,” he said, adding it was time for WHO and partners to be more honest with countries.
“WHO and GAVI have repeatedly overpromised and underdelivered, so why should we believe that they will suddenly be able to ramp up production and deliveries in a couple of months?” he said.
Outside the vaccination tents in Nairobi on Thursday, Dr. Duncan Nyukuri, an infectious disease physician, tried to reassure people getting their first dose.
“If you receive the first dose and you fail to receive the second dose, this does not mean that your body will be any weaker or you will be at an increased risk of getting any infection,” he said. “What it means is your body will have developed some immunity against the coronavirus infection. But this immunity is not as good as somebody who has received both doses.”
COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
More than one hundred economies have received life-saving COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, the global mechanism for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, says the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday.
The milestone comes 42 days after the first COVAX doses were shipped and delivered internationally, to Ghana on 24 February 2021.
COVAX has now delivered more than 38 million doses across six continents, supplied by three manufacturers, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and the Serum Institute of India (SII).
Of the over 100 economies reached, 61 are among the 92 lower-income economies receiving vaccines funded through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC).
Despite reduced supply availability in March and April – the result of vaccine manufacturers scaling and optimizing their production processes in the early phase of the rollout, as well as increased demand for COVID-19 vaccines in India – COVAX expects to deliver doses to all participating economies that have requested vaccines in the first half of the year.
Also read: Covishield and Covaxin: What we know about India's Covid-19 vaccines
“In four months since the very first mass vaccination outside a clinical setting anywhere in the world, it is tremendously gratifying that the roll-out of COVAX doses has already reached one hundred countries,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Berkley said COVAX may be on track to deliver to all participating economies in the first half of the year yet they still face a daunting challenge as they seek to end the acute stage of the pandemic: they will only be safe when everybody is safe and our efforts to rapidly accelerate the volume of doses depend on the continued support of governments and vaccine manufacturers.
“As we continue with the largest and most rapid global vaccine rollout in history, this is no time for complacency.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said COVAX has given the world the best way to ensure the fastest, most equitable rollout of safe and effective vaccines to all at-risk people in every country on the planet.
Also read: ‘We sink or we swim together’: 5 things you need to know about COVAX
“If we are going to realize this great opportunity, countries, producers and the international system must come together to prioritize vaccine supply through COVAX. Our collective future, literally, depends on it.”
Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) this is a significant milestone in the fight against COVID-19. “Faced with the rapid spread of COVID-19 variants, global access to vaccines is fundamentally important to reduce the prevalence of the disease, slow down viral mutation, and hasten the end of the pandemic.”
“In just a month and a half, the ambition of granting countries access to COVID vaccines is becoming a reality, thanks to the outstanding work of our partners in the COVAX Facility,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.
“However, this is no time to celebrate; it is time to accelerate. With variants emerging all over the world, we need to speed up global rollout. To do this, we need governments, along with other partners, to take necessary steps to increase supply, including by simplifying barriers to intellectual property rights, eliminating direct and indirect measures that restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines, and donating excess vaccine doses as quickly as possible.”
Also read: WHO calls for prioritising vaccine contracts with COVAX
According to its latest supply forecast, COVAX expects to deliver at least 2 billion doses of vaccines in 2021. In order to reach this goal, the COVAX Facility will continue to diversify its portfolio further, and will announce new agreements with vaccine manufacturers in due course.
Furthermore, in March it was announced that the United States government will host the launch event for the 2021 Gavi COVAX AMC Invest Opportunity to catalyze further commitment and support for accelerated access to vaccines for AMC-supported economies.
An additional US$ 2 billion is required in 2021 to finance and secure up to a total of 1.8 billion donor-funded doses of vaccines. COVAX is also working to secure additional sourcing of vaccines in the form of dose-sharing from higher income countries.