Coronavirus latest: Pope urges unity

The World Health Organization and its COVID-19 vaccine partner Gavi have said they are not currently planning to buy shots from South Africa's Aspen - whose CEO is warning a lack of demand threatens local production.

A year ago, South Africa celebrated the opening of the continent's first COVID vaccine production line. Now it's at risk of being shut down due to low demand.

After struggling through the early years of the pandemic to get enough Covid 19 vaccinations, Africa's first factory to produce the doses says it may have to stop because it hasn't had enough orders. A former Congolese policemen gets a death sentence for murdereing a rights activist in 2010. And sanctions on Mali have hit Senegalese neighbouring towns. Within one month of the embargo exports to Mali have fallen by close to a quarter.

After struggling through the early years of the pandemic to get enough Covid-19 vaccinations, Africa's first factory to produce the doses says it may have to stop because it hasn't had enough orders. Also, a former Congolese policemen gets a death sentence for murdering human rights activist Floribert Chebeya in 2010. And sanctions on Mali have hit neighbouring towns in Senegal. Within one month of the embargo, exports to Mali have fallen by close to a quarter.

Social media users worldwide are claiming that an ingredient in the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine - namely the "chimpanzee adenovirus vector" - is the reason behind the increase in global Monkeypox infections. However, these viruses are completely unrelated. We tell you why in this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl.

Polio cases are on the rise in Pakistan although it's an illness eradicated almost everywhere else in the world. Part of the problem is widespread vaccine skepticism and outlandish conspiracy theories.

The European Union has reached a deal on anti-monkeypox vaccines, with first jabs expected to arrive within weeks. The agreement was made through a new bloc-wide authority formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany is looking to lower gas demand to ward off long-term shortages as Russia throttles the gas flow. Gas prices for consumers could rise even more as a consequence.

German pharmaceutical company BioNTech has begun construction of an COVID-19 vaccine plant in Rwanda. When completed, it will be the first mRNA vaccine plant in Africa.

The two German vaccine competitors are heading to court over a legal dispute concerning BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine. CureVac has called for "fair compensation."

After some short-lived optimism that the worst of the COVID pandemic might be over, health experts are warning that the peak of the seventh wave has yet to arrive.

Regulators in the UK are again the first in the world to provisionally approve a new COVID vaccine for use. The latest shot, from Moderna in the US, is supposed to offer protection against the Omicron variant as well.