Countries are further advised to utilize WHO’s operational guidance for maintainingessential servicesduring an outbreak to balance the demands of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic whilst simultaneously ensuring that essential health services and provision of medication for other ongoing medical conditions are maintained.
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鼓励各国参考规范指导，如世卫组织基本药物清单和关于成人及青少年癌症疼痛的药理学和放射治疗管理指南。
Countries are encouraged to refer to normative guidance such as the WHO List of Essential Medicines and guidelines for the pharmacological and radiotherapeutic management of cancer pain in adults and adolescents.
Countries are further advised to refer to and utilize the strategies presented in UNODC’s Technical Guidance: Increasing Access and Availability of Controlled Medicines developed in collaboration with experts, civil society partners and other international partners.
Under the UNODC-WHO-UICC Joint Global Program, countries are encouraged to reach out to UNODC and WHO for technical assistance and support at the national level that also involves civil society partners.
The work of doctors, nurses, and health care professionals in general, who provide treatment and care to people including the most vulnerable, needs to be supported and safe and effective medicines should be available, accessible and affordable at all times for people who need them.
INCB, WHO and UNODC are committed to continue to work together to address this critical issue and will expand joint efforts to engage with other partners and increase advocacy and technical assistance to countries for improving access to controlled medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate barriers to ensure that both patients affected by COVID-19 or by other non-COVID-related conditions requiring medicines under international control have access to these medicines when they need them.
As part of its on-going work to track variants, WHO's Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution ( TAG-VE ) met yesterday to discuss the latest evidence on the Omicron variant of concern, including its sublineages BA.1 and BA.2.
Based on available data of transmission, severity, reinfection, diagnostics, therapeutics and impacts of vaccines, the group reinforced that the BA.2 sublineage should continue to be considered a variant of concern and that it should remain classified as Omicron.