The World Health Organization (WHO) and Germany jointly announced on Wednesday to establish a new global hub based in Berlin for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
"The new WHO Hub will be a global platform for pandemic prevention, bringing together various governmental, academic and private sector institutions," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a joint online press briefing.
As part of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, the hub will be a new collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and to monitor disease control measures, community acceptance and infodemics, according to WHO.
The hub will support the work of public health experts and policy-makers in all countries with insights, so they can make rapid decisions to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.
It's also expected to drive a scale-up in innovation for existing forecasting and early warning capacities in WHO and member states.
"One of the lessons of COVID-19 is that the world needs a significant leap forward in data analysis to help leaders make informed public health decisions," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.