Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for the warring parties in Gaza to guarantee humanitarian pauses in the fighting so a polio vaccine campaign can be conducted.
“Let’s be clear: the ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” Mr Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
“But in any case, a polio pause is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.”
He appealed for “concrete assurances” to be provided quickly, warning that preventing and containing the spread of polio in the enclave would take an urgent, massive and co-ordinated effort.
Mr Guterres gave no timetable on when a pause would start and how long it would last.
The UN is set to launch a vaccine campaign in Gaza for children under the age of 10, but the “challenges are grave”, Mr Guterres added.
Last week, the World Health Organisation set out plans to administer 1.6 million polio vaccine doses in Gaza to prevent an outbreak that could exacerbate the current humanitarian crisis.
Two rounds of mass vaccination – aimed at hundreds of thousands of children – will begin this month after the detection of poliovirus in sewage in southern Khan Younis and central Deir Al Balah.
Gaza's Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic in the Palestinian enclave last month, blaming Israel's military offensive.
At least 95 per cent vaccination coverage will be needed during each of the two rounds of the campaign to prevent polio's spread and reduce its emergence given the devastation in Gaza, Mr Guterres said.
He added that a successful campaign will require the transport for vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step, the entry of polio experts into Gaza, reliable internet and phone services, and other elements.
“And, above all, a successful polio vaccination campaign needs safety” for health workers, for children and their families to get to vaccination sites and for those facilities to be protected from bombings, Mr Guterres added.
A senior western official, told Reuters there was at least one confirmed case and two suspected among Palestinians in the enclave, adding that there might not be a single humanitarian pause but several shorter ones.
The danger is that the threat of disease outbreaks is not confined to Gaza, which the official said was a “contagion time bomb”, as when the rainy season begins in late autumn, the contaminated raw sewage could be “pushed” down to an aquifer from which Israel, Egypt and Jordan draw water.
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the faecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
Children under five are most at risk from the viral disease, especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by 10 months of conflict.
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Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Company%20Profile
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Federer's 11 Wimbledon finals
2003 Beat Mark Philippoussis
2004 Beat Andy Roddick
2005 Beat Andy Roddick
2006 Beat Rafael Nadal
2007 Beat Rafael Nadal
2008 Lost to Rafael Nadal
2009 Beat Andy Roddick
2012 Beat Andy Murray
2014 Lost to Novak Djokovic
2015 Lost to Novak Djokovic
2017 Beat Marin Cilic
Ballon d’Or shortlists
Men
Sadio Mane (Senegal/Liverpool), Sergio Aguero (Aregentina/Manchester City), Frenkie de Jong (Netherlans/Barcelona), Hugo Lloris (France/Tottenham), Dusan Tadic (Serbia/Ajax), Kylian Mbappe (France/PSG), Trent Alexander-Arnold (England/Liverpool), Donny van de Beek (Netherlands/Ajax), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon/Arsenal), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Germany/Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Juventus), Alisson (Brazil/Liverpool), Matthijs de Ligt (Netherlands/Juventus), Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid), Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands/Liverpool), Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands/Liverpool), Bernardo Silva (Portugal/Manchester City), Son Heung-min (South Korea/Tottenham), Robert Lewandowski (Poland/Bayern Munich), Roberto Firmino (Brazil/Liverpool), Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria/Manchester City), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium/Manchester City), Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal/Napoli), Antoine Griezmann (France/Barcelona), Mohamed Salah (Egypt/Liverpool), Eden Hazard (BEL/Real Madrid), Marquinhos (Brazil/Paris-SG), Raheem Sterling (Eengland/Manchester City), Joao Félix(Portugal/Atletico Madrid)
Women
Sam Kerr (Austria/Chelsea), Ellen White (England/Manchester City), Nilla Fischer (Sweden/Linkopings), Amandine Henry (France/Lyon), Lucy Bronze(England/Lyon), Alex Morgan (USA/Orlando Pride), Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands/Arsenal), Dzsenifer Marozsan (Germany/Lyon), Pernille Harder (Denmark/Wolfsburg), Sarah Bouhaddi (France/Lyon), Megan Rapinoe (USA/Reign FC), Lieke Martens (Netherlands/Barcelona), Sari van Veenendal (Netherlands/Atletico Madrid), Wendie Renard (France/Lyon), Rose Lavelle(USA/Washington Spirit), Marta (Brazil/Orlando Pride), Ada Hegerberg (Norway/Lyon), Kosovare Asllani (Sweden/CD Tacon), Sofia Jakobsson (Sweden/CD Tacon), Tobin Heath (USA/Portland Thorns)
