Tan Desai, Director-General of the World Health Organization.
- The Director-General of WHO called on countries that provided the third vaccination to share their dose so that other countries could increase the first and second vaccination.
- He told reporters that he is disappointed that rich countries continue to increase vaccine stockpiles.
- To date, 75% of the 4.8 billion doses of vaccine delivered globally have been used in only 10 countries, while the vaccine coverage rate in Africa is less than 2%.
The head of the World Health Organization called on Monday to suspend the two-month booster injection of the Covid-19 vaccine to reduce global vaccine inequality and prevent the emergence of new coronavirus variants.
WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros told reporters in Budapest, Hungary, that he was “very disappointed” with the scope of vaccine donations worldwide, because many countries are trying to provide the first and second doses of vaccines to a small part of the population. , While wealthy countries maintain ever-increasing vaccine inventories.
Tan Desai called on countries that provide the third dose of vaccine to “share with other countries the vaccine that can be used for booster vaccines so that (they) increase the coverage of the first and second vaccination.”
Several countries including the United States, Israel, and Hungary, as well as other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, are already offering or planning to provide Covid-19 booster shots for their populations.
In early August, Hungary became the first country among the 27 EU member states to allow residents to register for the third dose. According to government statistics, more than 187,000 people have so far received the booster dose.
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Last week, US health officials announced plans to vaccinate all Americans with the Covid-19 booster vaccine to strengthen protection against a surge in cases caused by delta variants and signs that the vaccine’s effectiveness is declining.
However, the United Nations health agency has repeatedly called on rich countries to take more action to help improve developing countries’ access to vaccines.
On Monday, Tedros said that of the 4.8 billion doses of vaccine delivered so far, 75% have been used in only 10 countries, while the vaccine coverage rate in Africa is less than 2%.
Tan Desai said that “vaccine injustice and vaccine nationalism” increase the risk of more contagious mutations.
“The virus will have a chance to spread in countries with lower vaccination coverage, and the Delta variant may evolve to be more virulent, and at the same time more effective variants may appear,” he said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sialto said at a press conference that Hungary has stockpiled 8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, and the Central European country has donated more than 1.5 million doses to other countries.
Tedros thanked Hungary for these donations and added: “We hope you can do more, because no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
