A health worker prepares to inject a colleague with a dose of Covishield Covid-19 vaccine at Patan hospital in Lalitpur, Nepal, (Keystone/EPA/Narendra Shrestha)

Vaccine rollout is one of the key reasons that countries are hoping to get the Covid-19 pandemic under control even as new virus variants flourish. Geneva Solutions takes a look back at the last year of challenges and opportunities since the WHO declared a global health emergency on 30 January, 2020.

💉 Vaccine nationalism will not serve any countries, says WHO chief. As wealthy nations rush to get vaccines for their citizens, the World Health Organization has urged countries not to engage in ‘vaccine nationalism’. In a recent study it was revealed that the world stands to lose in huge economic numbers if richer countries hoard the vaccines.

😷 The bleak post-covid reality of low-income countries According to Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, low-income countries will bear the brunt from the knock-on effects of the pandemic, despite currently having relatively low mortality rates. It can be expected that remnants of Covid-19 will result in higher mortality rates in the context of already fragile health systems, as expressed by sands.

💉 Moderna vaccines may work against new variants of the coronavirus. Early tests conducted by scientists from the US pharmaceutical company have shown that the Moderna Covid vaccine may work against new and more infectious variants of the pandemic virus found in the UK and South Africa. Although these results are preliminary, the company has seen promising signs

Pictured: A Holocaust survivor receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Health Minister Marek Krajci, right, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Bratislava, Slovakia. 27 January 2021. Credit: Dano Veselsky/TASR via AP

Survivors of the Holocaust receive Covid-19 vaccine. To commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day nearly 60 survivors received their COVID-19 vaccination in Bratislava on Wednesday. The vaccination was held at the city’s Jewish Community Centre as Slovakia began inoculating people over 75 - an age group that includes those born before the end of World War II.

28 January | Eliminating NTDs: together towards 2030 The World Health Organization is launching a road map for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This document is a high-level strategic and advocacy tool aimed at strengthening the programmatic response to NTDs.

2 February | Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Virtual Conference 2021 Bringing together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars, this event will be based on shared experiences and research results on all aspects of antimicrobial chemotherapy.

2 February | IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention This International Aids Society online conference will broadly examine all aspects of Covid-19 infection prevention, including non-pharmaceutical interventions, active and passive immunisation and related science.

Covid-19 milestone. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has passed 100 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University data, almost a year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern.