Global News

1 JAMAICA

Jamaica digitises healthcare

The Jamaican

Government is investing $8.5 million to digitally transform its healthcare system, with the aim of reducing transaction time and cost. The Ministry of Health is currently in the process of finding a vendor to roll out home care and telemedicine services. 2 UNITED KINGDOM

Brexit more damaging to UK healthcare than COVID-19

A new survey by GlobalData has found that healthcare professionals believe Brexit will be worse for the UK’s healthcare sector than COVID19. The issues they cited included border restrictions and additional regulations for businesses based in the UK and the EU.

3 GLOBAL

World divided over vaccine IP waiver

The US government announced its support for a waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. But while the move was welcomed by global public health agencies, the EU, Australia and Japan were among the countries still opposed to it.

6

GLOBAL

HIV self-tests become cheaper and more accessible

Unitaid has led a new agreement with Viatris that will halve the costs of self-testing for HIV. The new tests will be available for less than $2 in 135 countries.

4

FRANCE

Dogs detect COVID-19 better than tests

A French study has found that sniffer dogs can detect COVID-19 in humans 97% of the time, compared to lateral flow tests which are only correct in 72% of cases. This could lead to dogs being used for mass virus screening in public places.