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Updated May 24th, 2021 at 18:42 IST

COVID-19: WHO chief asks countries to vaccinate at least 10% of population by September

WHO Chief Tedros also asked world leaders to conduct a “drive to December” to achieve goal of vaccinating at least 30 percent by the end of the year 2021.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
WHO
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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The World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called for the member states to support a “massive push” to vaccinate at least 10 percent of the population of every country by September. He also asked the world leaders to conduct a “drive to December” to achieve the goal of vaccinating at least 30 percent by the end of the year in order to contain the deadly spread of the novel coronavirus.

Furthermore, Tedros asked the wealthier nations to stop vaccinating the low-risk children population saying that “there is not enough supply.” Speaking at the 74th World Health Assembly, WHO Chief warned, “Countries that vaccinate children and other low-risk groups now do so at the expense of health workers and high-risk groups in other countries.” He also assured that so far, no COVID-19 variants have emerged as such that might significantly undermine the efficacy of the vaccines, diagnostics or therapeutics. "But there is no guarantee that will remain the case. This virus is changing constantly," he said. 

In his address at the live speech at the 'Ministerial Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union' on access to vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic earlier, Tedros stated that he was "pleased" that with the support of COVAX, 47 countries in the African continent started their vaccination campaigns. Although he added, the volumes of vaccines "are nowhere near enough." The low-income nations in Africa have administered just over 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines or 1.5 percent of the global total. "And this is tragic," the WHO chief revealed, expressing concern about the sluggish vaccination drive in the poorer countries of the world.

'Donate vaccines to COVAX,' WHO Chief says

Tedros had earlier asked rich nations to reconsider their vaccine strategies and to instead donate vaccines to COVAX.” WHO cautioned that the cases and deaths have been increasing rapidly in WHO’s South-East Asia region, adding that there are countries in every region now with “increasing trends.” Moreover, he warned that the pandemic was still evolving, and progressing elsewhere around the world and globally, countries were still in a "perilous situation," as he stressed on vaccine equity. “High- and upper-middle-income countries have received 83% of the world’s vaccines while, low- and lower-middle countries have received just 17 percent of the world’s vaccines,” Tedros reiterated. 

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Published May 24th, 2021 at 18:42 IST

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