GENEVA – With 82 countries at risk of missing a global vaccination target by the end of this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief yesterday urged nations that have reached a 40% vaccination target to swap delivery schedules with vaccine-sharing facilities.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a meeting at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Rome that seven billion vaccine doses against Covid-19 have been administered globally, but issued caution.
“Low-income countries, most of them in Africa, have received just 0.4% of those vaccines; more than 80% have gone to G20 countries,” Anadolu Agency reported Tedros as saying.
He explained that vaccine equity is not charity, but it is in every country’s best interests.
“We welcome your support for WHO’s target to vaccinate 40% of the population of all countries by the end of this year and 70% by mid-2022,” said Tedros, adding that 82 countries are at risk of missing that target.
“For most, the barrier is not absorptive capacity, it’s insufficient supply.”
Tedros called on those countries that have already reached the 40% vaccination target to swap their vaccine delivery schedules with Covax, the global vaccine-sharing facility, and the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust to achieve vaccine equity.
When G20 met less than a year ago, 1.5 million people lost their lives to Covid-19, and a year later, the toll was five million, said Tedros.
“We ask you to support local vaccine production in Africa,” he said, calling on countries that have promised to donate vaccines to urgently make good on those promises.
He also pleaded with G20 nations to fully fund the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator, which needs US$23.4 billion (RM96.9 billion) over the next 12 months to get tests, treatments, and vaccines to where they are needed most.
Tedros called for support for an ambitious G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force linked to a financial fund for additional pandemic preparedness and response financing.
The WHO chief also urged G20 nations to adopt a treaty or international agreement rooted in the constitution of WHO and invest in a strengthened, financed WHO. – Bernama, October 31, 2021
