Press releases

12 May 2021 - The UK Government should urgently commit to sharing 20% of its available Covid-19 vaccine doses from June.

Escalation in the Gaza Strip last night, following weeks of violence in Jerusalem, resulted in at least 20 people killed, including nine Palestinian children confirmed. Four of the children were siblings, and many attended the same UNRWA school. At least 25 children have been confirmed as injured, with many other injured children reported.

“Over the past two days, 29 Palestinian children were injured in East Jerusalem including in the Old City and the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Eight Palestinian children were meanwhile arrested.“A one-year old toddler was among those injured. Some children were taken for treatment at hospitals with injuries in the head and the spine.

“UNICEF strongly condemns the horrific attack earlier today near the Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The attack claimed the lives of dozens of schoolchildren, mostly girls, and severely injured many more.

GENEVA, 7 May 2021 – This is a summary of what was said by UNICEF representative Dr Yasmin Ali Haque – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

05 May 2021 – UNICEF has sent additional critical lifesaving supplies to India, including 2 million face shields and 200,000 surgical masks.

4 May 2021 - Statement by George Laryea-Adjei, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.

More than 350 people have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since the start of the year From Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North…

29 April 2021 – UNICEF has sent critical lifesaving supplies to help India in its battle with a deadly wave of COVID-19.

Thursday 29 April 2021 – The United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) is pleased to announce the appointment of Shatish Dasani as Chair with immediate effect. Shatish brings a…

29 April 2021 - UNICEF, Yale Institute for Global Health, and Public Good Projects team up to create the Vaccination Demand Observatory to equip country teams with tools to counter misinformation and mistrust related to all vaccines.

Mass immunization campaigns are also disrupted. According to new data, 60 of these lifesaving campaigns are currently postponed in 50 countries, putting around 228 million people - mostly children - at risk for diseases such as measles, yellow fever and polio. Over half of the 50 affected countries are in Africa, highlighting protracted inequities in people’s access to critical immunization services.

22 April 2021- “Announcements on cuts to UK aid made this week are of serious concern to the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK). For every pound cut, children living in some of the world’s worst crises and conflicts could suffer the consequences - with fewer children able to attend school, receive life-saving food and access critical healthcare services."

22 April 2021 – “Syria received 256,800 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVAX delivery of vaccines to reach the war-torn country.

• The COVAX Facility has now delivered life-saving vaccines to over 100 economies since making its first international delivery to Ghana on February 24th • So far, more than 38 million doses of vaccines from manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have now been delivered, including 61 economies eligible for vaccines through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment• COVAX aims to supply vaccines to all participating economies that have requested vaccines, in the first half of 2021, despite some delays in planned deliveries for March and April.

Yemen received 360,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Four polio vaccinators, three of them women, came under attack this morning, March 30, while carrying out their life-saving work for children in Nangarhar province, Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Tragically, the three women were killed.