The World Health Organization considers “that all the hypotheses” about the origin of the coronavirus “remain on the table” after the report of the international mission that visited China was presented.
“The report is a very important start, but It is not the end“Said WHO Director Dr. Tedros Adhanon Gebreyesus.
The document defends that the The most likely theory is that the coronavirus was transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.
The role played by mercado de Huanan, in Wuhan, it is still unclear. Investigations indicate that there were initial cases that had nothing to do with the Huanan market and in December there was already considerable transmission of the virus in the city that cannot be associated with that place either. “The market in Huanan had a amplifying paper, but at that time of the first cases there was already some diversity of the virus that indicates that there is some transmission chain that we do not know, so we have to investigate more ”, said Professor Marion Koopman, one of the team members.
This information “may suggest that this market was not the source of the outbreak,” says the report.
The team also visited several laboratories in Wuhan although he considers that the possibility that the virus entered the population due to an accident in one of them “It is extremely unlikely.” The director of the team, Peter Benenbarek, explained that the mission of the trip focused more on the animal origin of the virus because it is about what well-founded clues exist, without them being able to “hear, see or observe anything that allows” to establish the laboratory origin.
The escape from a laboratory “was not something in which there were indications that they would tell us that we had to investigate and it was classified as the least probable route of the four possible ones. Not that it is impossible, but it was not the avenue on which we initially focused our attention. But, if it is necessary to explore this or other hypotheses further, of course we will continue looking at these hypotheses“, he pointed.
The director of the WHO, however, considers that this “evaluation was not broad enough” and that it will be necessary “More data and studies to reach more solid conclusions” and “potentially additional missions with specialists” that it claims to be “ready to deploy”.
World leaders demand an international treaty to improve pandemic preparedness
UNICEF / Habibul Haque
A girl and her mother wear face masks to navigate the streets of Bangladesh, a daily scene in the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020.
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A group of world leaders have joined the WHO to demand an international treaty that improves preparedness and response to other possible pandemics.
In a joint article, the dignitaries say that COVID-19 has been “a stark and painful reminder that no one is safe until we are all safe“And that” there will be other pandemics and major health emergencies. ”
“The question is not if there will be, but when. Together, we have to be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, address and respond effectively to pandemics in a very coordinated way, ”they say in the article, signed, among others, by the leaders of Chile, Costa Rica and Spain.
The Tulum police “used force contrary to international standards” that led to the death of Victoria Salazar
Gustavo Martinez Contreras
The pink crosses represent the victims of femicide in Mexico.
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Several UN agencies in Mexico have joined in the condemnation of the murder of Victoria Salazar in Tulum, Quintana Roo, by police officers who made a “use of force contrary to international standards.”
The agencies ask the authorities to carry out a prompt and impartial investigation and in line with human rights standards on the matter.
UN Human Rights affirms that death “is a sample of the urgency to fully implement action protocols aligned with international standards“And adds that accountability must imply” a profound and structural change “in the way the police interact with the population.
Victoria Salazar had Salvadoran nationality, was the mother of two minor daughters and lived in Mexico as a refugee. The representative of the International Organization for Migration considers that the “tragic outcome” evidences “the deficiencies that exist to protect the life and safety of migrants in Mexico ”.
Tens of civilians killed and thousands displaced by attacks by armed groups in Mozambique
PMA / Falume Bachir
Displaced people waiting for the distribution of assistance from the World Food Program in the Metuge district of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
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And we are now talking about Mozambique where thousands of civilians are fleeing the city of Palma due to attacks by insurgent groups.
UN agencies say dozens of people have died. Jens Larke is the spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.
“What has happened in Palma is that non-state armed groups have inflicted absolute horror on civilians. That is what I can say. They have done terrible things, they are still doing them. We know that there have been sporadic attacks this morning and that is why we hope that thousands more people will flee from palm to other areas of the country and the border with Tanzania ”.
The International Organization for Migration has registered more than 3300 displaced inmates, some 670 families, who have arrived on foot, by bus or boat to other nearby districts. Other families have hidden in the bushes near Palma.
UNICEF assures that more than half of the displaced are children and that they all “desperately need help.”
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