A World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Monday that the global body would postpone a decision on Ethiopia's request to investigate its leader for allegedly supporting rebellious forces fighting the Ethiopian government. WHO Executive Board chair Patrick Amoth made the statement at a meeting of the board in Geneva where current director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' bid for a second term as head of the U.N. agency is due to be discussed.

Germany is planning to impose mandatory coronavirus vaccinations. Thousands of people have gone to the streets to show their disapproval, but the government says the country is not divided. DW correspondent Thomas Sparrow discusses.

Ethiopia's government has accused the head of the UN's health agency of interfering in its internal affairs. Separately, another UN body warned that the Tigray region is on "the edge of a major humanitarian disaster."

More evidence is emerging that the Omicron coronavirus variant is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday.

The head of the World Health Organization says rich countries are merely prolonging the pandemic by fueling vaccine inequality. "No country can boost its way out of the pandemic," he says.

Global health body said the new variant has a "substantial growth advantage over delta". More data is still needed to determine the severity of the strain.

The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November. The WHO has listed it as a ‘variant of concern’ and said it could take several weeks to know if there are significant changes in transmissibility, severity, or implications for Covid vaccines, tests, and treatments. Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Israel, Hong Kong, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada are countries where the new COVID-19 variant has also been detected.

The UN health body has given the new variant a name and said it is a variant of concern. The WHO urged against hasty travel curbs while it gathers more data.

Data from 13 African countries has found a 10.2% case fatality rate in COVID-19 patients with diabetes, compared with 2.5% for COVID-19 patients overall.

Rich nations must stop being greedy with vaccines if they want the pandemic to end, WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told DW. Sharing vaccines, tools, and treatments is the only way to stop new variants.

On average, 40% of health professionals in the world are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 but this figure hides huge disparities between regions, regrets Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.

The World Health Organization has been under pressure after nearly two dozen of its employees were accused of sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo.