Coronavirus | SARS-CoV2 | COVID-19

A new technical note, Medical certification, ICD mortality coding, and reporting mortality associated with COVID-19, has been released that describes medical certification and classification of deaths related to COVID-19. The primary goal is to identify all deaths due to this disease in all countries.

A joint task force has been established by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Central European Initiative to strengthen regional coordination for the COVID-19 response and mitigate the impact of the pandemic. The task force will serve as a strategic platform for updating member states, exchanging information, and sharing experiences, best practices and training. 

This year on World Environment Day on 5 June, people around the world celebrated biodiversity and called for the preservation of nature, as human impact on the environment has increased the risk of emerging infectious diseases in humans: over 60% of emerging infectious diseases originate from animals, mainly from wildlife

Digital tools offer opportunities to strengthen contact tracing for COVID-19. WHO has published interim guidance on considerations, opportunities and challenges of integrating digital tools into contact tracing methods.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros announced updated guidance on the use of masksfor the control of COVID-19. This guidance is based on evolving evidence, and provides updated advice on who should wear a mask, when it should be worn and of what it should be made.

WHO is supporting the response to a new Ebola outbreak in northwest Democratic Republic of the Congo. The new outbreak comes as the country continues to respond to the complex Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the country, the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s largest measles outbreak, and a complex and long-standing humanitarian crisis. 

Basic psychosocial support skills are at the core of any mental health and psychosocialsupport intervention. To assist all those involved in the COVID-19 response, WHO has published guidance on basic psychosocial skills. 

During the 1 June media briefing, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to disruptions in services for treatment of non-communicable diseases in many countries. The COVID-19 response must be inclusive of the healthcare needs of people living with these diseases.

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been an urgent need to accelerate the research and development of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. WHO has been supporting this effort. Currently over 120 candidate vaccines have been mapped and sites in 40 countries have expressed an interest to join the Vaccine Solidarity Trial. 

Smoking kills 8 million people worldwide each year and is associated with increased severity of disease and death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

WHO has published key planning recommendations for mass gatherings in the context of the current COVID-19 outbreak. The document provides guidance on containing risks of COVID-19 transmission associated with mass gathering events.