Coronavirus Update: February 27, 2020 Editor’s note: All facts and figures in this blog are current as of February 27, 2020. We will regularly update this blog as the situation evolves and new data becomes available. The outbreak of novel coronavirus, now officially known as COVID-19, continues to grow. For the first time since it began in December 2019, more new cases have been reported outside of China than inside. A total of 46 countries […]

Slovenian tennis player, Dalila Jakupovic, was about to serve during the first round qualifying match of the Australian Open, when she fell to her knees in a coughing fit. The air quality in Melbourne, where the tennis tournament is held, was deemed “moderate to hazardous,” because of smoke from bushfires that have burned 16 million acres in Australia — an area about the size of West Virginia. She later had to withdraw from the match,

The alarm bells are ringing again. A new infectious disease is spreading internationally, and the world is working to prevent another potential pandemic. Memories of earlier global health threats – from SARS to H1N1 to Ebola to Zika – come to the fore as we deal with the novel coronavirus (now known as COVID-19) emanating from Wuhan, China. While much progress has been made in improving global health security since SARS in 2003, everyone recognizes

On a recent trip to Bangalore, India, I visited a garment manufacturer called Laj Exports that supplies fabric to brands like Lee, Wrangler, and Guess. Roughly 70% of the factory’s workers are women, each of whom stitch, sew, cut, and package clothing items that are exported globally — some of them landing right in my own closet. This is typical of the apparel sector in India, which employs 8 million people, more than half of

In this time of uncertainty, one thing is clear: We can’t stop the COVID-19 pandemic without a coordinated, global response. Right now the World Health Organization (WHO) is on the frontlines of this fast-moving crisis — providing everything from personal protective equipment for health workers to the latest safety guidelines so governments and citizens alike have accurate, up-to-date information about the virus. Yet this pandemic is unlike anything we’ve ever faced before — and will

We’re all navigating new realities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Every single one of us. Communities all over the world have been affected, and people are adapting in different ways: Self-quarantining, social distancing, teleworking, homeschooling. Perhaps you’re reading this by yourself right now. In whatever way you might be coping, know that you are not alone. We’re in this fight together. That’s certainly what we’ve seen — and have been inspired by — in

We are living in a new reality. As the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, sweeps through the world in what the World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized as a pandemic, health systems are racing to respond and countries and communities are taking unprecedented measures to contain the spread of the virus. The WHO is leading the global effort to detect, prevent, and respond to the pandemic, helping countries – especially those most at risk – prepare with

Two years ago, I sat at a conference table in Monrovia, Liberia listening to health experts talk about the lessons learned from the early days of the Ebola outbreak. I was traveling with a small group of Americans, all of us eager to hear details of how subsequent outbreaks had been contained through a combination of faster detection, better coordination among agencies and eventually, an experimental vaccine. The U.S. and the UN was well represented