As stated by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid, persistent Covid-19 vaccine inequality continues, preventing everyone from being protected from coronavirus.
For such a reason, global solidarity and collective action are urgently needed to bring Covid-19 vaccine doses to the entire world, Mr. Shahid stressed.
To date, Mr. Shahid stated, over 428.5 million Covid-19 cases and 5.9 million deaths has been reported worldwide, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
While more than 10 billion vaccine doses have been administered internationally, enough to immunize the whole planet, about 83% of the African Union (AU) population has not received a single shot, Mr. Shahid warned.
Meanwhile, through a video message, the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres described the Covid-19 vaccine inequities as “a moral accusation of our time.”
This unequal access to immunizations costs many human lives, damages economies, and allows coronavirus to continue spreading, Mr. Guterres said.
We´ve seen hopeful progress as the vaccine supplies are safe and predictable, as doses are donated, as nations make their greatest efforts to speed up immunization campaigns, Mr. Guterres stated.
But many more of those actions are still needed to reach equitable access to vaccines against Covid-19, he stressed.
mh/pll/acl/ifb