WORLD

WHO slams ‘shocking disparity’ in vaccine access

World Health Organization hit out on Tuesday at the “shocking disparity” in access to coronavirus vaccines, with only four countries in Africa able to meet their inoculation targets so far.

“Globally, 140 countries have vaccinated at least 10 percent of their populations,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening of an online meeting of African health ministers.

“But in our continent, only four countries have been able to reach that target, owing to the shocking disparity in access to vaccines.”

The WHO secretary-general said that “the vaccine crisis illustrates the fundamental weakness at the root of the pandemic: the lack of global solidarity and sharing”. And that included the sharing of information and data, biological samples, resources, technology and tools, he said.

Covax, the global programme co-sponsored by the WHO that tries to secure vaccines for nations with less financial clout, has delivered 40 million doses to African countries, according to WHO Africa regional director, Matshidiso Moeti.

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