Covid pandemic will easily drag on deep into 2022, warns WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Covid pandemic will “easily drag on deep into 2022” because poorer countries are not getting the required vaccines.

Less than 5 per cent of Africa’s population have been vaccinated, compared to 40% on most other continents.

Aylward asked the developed countries to give up their places in the queue for vaccines so that pharmaceutical companies can prioritise the lowest-income countries instead.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

He said wealthy countries needed to “stocktake” where they were with their donation commitments made at summits such as the G7 meeting in St Ives this summer.

"I can tell you we're not on track. We really need to speed it up or you know what? This pandemic is going to go on for a year longer than it needs to,” BBC quoted Aylward as saying.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 4.6 million people and infected over 228 million people globally, has exposed glaring inequalities among nations over vaccine access and affordability.

Watch

According to WHO research, enough vaccines will be produced in 2021 to cover 70 per cent of the global population of 7.8 billion. However, most vaccines are being reserved for wealthy countries, while other vaccine-producing countries are restricting the export of doses so they can ensure that their own citizens get vaccinated first, an approach which has been dubbed “vaccine nationalism”.

The decision by some nations to give already inoculated citizens a booster vaccine, rather than prioritizing doses for unvaccinated people in poorer countries has been highlighted as one example of this trend.

According to the Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity (established by UNDP, WHO and Oxford University) as of October 20, only 4.51 per cent of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated with at least one dose, compared to 62.79 per cent in high-income countries.

(With inputs from agencies)