WHO: 116 countries far from achieving vaccination target of 70%

A total of 116 countries are far from achieving the target of vaccinating 70% of the population against COVID-19, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

At a global Covid-19 action meeting, Tedros said, “in some countries, high vaccination coverage, combined with the lesser severity of Omicron, leads to a false narrative that the pandemic is over.”

“At the same time, low vaccination coverage and low testing rates in other countries create ideal conditions for the emergence of new variants,” he added.

“We can control the pandemic this year, but we run an increased risk, as for now, 116 countries are far from reaching our common goal of vaccinating 70% of the population in each country by the middle of this year,” WHO’s general director explained.

Accordingly, Tedros noted that the ACT accelerator, a mechanism for providing access to tools for the fight against Covid-19, along with its COVAX component, and “to our partnership with UNICEF, we are now overcoming some of the constraints supply and delivery challenges we faced last year, with over a billion doses of vaccine shipped.”

For the world to reach its vaccination target, “We ask all countries to support the global goal of vaccinating 70% of the population,” Tedros recommended, urging countries to contribute to the financing of the ACT accelerator, for $16 billion.

According to WHO’s General-Director, building local vaccine manufacturing capacity around the world, including through temporary intellectual property waivers for Covid-19 tools will help end this pandemic as well as ensure the safety of all of us.”