New Delhi: The World Health Organisation Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said “All countries should vaccinate at least 10 percent population of the nation by September to control the pandemic.” Many countries in the world are facing scarcity of vaccines and vaccination program is very slow over there – which could create trouble for other countries.
The WHO chief added that “Vaccine equity is not just the right thing to do. It’s the best way to control the pandemic and reboot the global economy.” Pandemic will never go if we avoid looking at poor nations.
Asserting that when some countries are not able to vaccinate their population, it’s a threat to all countries, Ghebreyesus called for a global effort to vaccinate at least 10 percent of the population of every country by September, at least 40 percent by the end of the year, and at least 70 percent by the middle of next year.
According to the United Nations report “Covid-19 vaccination rates are uneven across countries, ranging from below 1 percent of the population in some countries to above 60 percent in others.”
The UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program has faced a slow start to its campaign and the COVAX has distributed just 81 million doses globally and parts of the world, particularly in Africa.
Bruce Aylward, Senior Adviser to Ghebreyesus, last month said “The global alliance for equitable vaccine distribution is about 200 million (20 crore) doses behind where it should be due to disruption in COVAX supplies as a result of the devastating second wave of the coronavirus in India.”
“WHO is urgently trying to work with AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India (SII) as well as the Indian government to restart shipments of Covid-19 vaccines to countries that had to suspend the rollout of second doses of vaccines amid the disruption in supplies,” Bruce Aylward said.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is the key supplier of AstraZeneca doses to COVAX. However, the supply of vaccines from SII to COVAX has been impacted as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit India.
Last month, the G7 consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US pledged over 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the world’s poorest countries by the end of next year. Globally, the coronavirus has infected over 18.2 crore people and killed nearly 40 lakh, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in India has gone past 33.54 crores, including more than 25.14 lakh jabs given on Wednesday.
India has recorded more than 3 crore coronavirus cases and registered nearly 400,000 deaths due to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic last year.
