“Global deployment of COVID-19 vaccines is advancing at two alarming speeds. Less than 2 percent of adults are fully vaccinated in most low-income countries, compared to nearly 50 percent in high-income countries,” according to a UN agency release.
Leaders from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) met with leaders from the African Vaccine Supply Fund (AVAT), African CDC, Gavi and UNICEF to accelerate vaccines in low-income and middle-income countries, especially in Africa.
“These countries, most of which are in Africa, simply cannot get enough vaccine to meet even global targets: 10% coverage in all countries by September and 40% by the end of 2021, not to mention the African Union’s target of 70% by 2022.”, UN authorities said.
The vaccine inequality crisis is driving โdangerous differencesโ in COVID-19 survival rates and in the global economy, agency executives said gratefully for the โimportant workโ of AVAT and COVAX in trying to address the โinappropriate situationโ.
However, effectively addressing this acute shortage of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries and fully enabling AVAT and COVAX operations will require prompt cooperation between vaccine manufacturers, vaccine-producing countries and countries that have already reached high vaccination levels, the opinion added.
Source: ANI
Source: The Nordic Page