The World Health Organisation (WHO) has opened its Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin aimed at improving how Covid-19 strains are monitored globally and for earlier response to possible future pandemics, British news portal The Guardian reports.
«We currently don’t have a consistent view of how Covid-19 variants are developing across the globe, and no single database that allows us to easily share information,» noted Oliver Morgan, the director of the WHO’s Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Department. «We only really have small windows into the overall picture via some countries with advanced labs.»
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On Wednesday, September 1, the UN agency’s Director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled the centre in Berlin.
The hub, which will host scientists and policymakers from around the globe on a project-by-project basis, is designed to make it easier for governments to compare notes on emerging infectious diseases and pull in additional relevant information on travel patterns, trade routes or human-animal interactions in agriculture, The Guardian reports.
WHO establishes Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin
