Rich nations urged to help poor countries with vaccines

The World Health Organization, or WHO, on Friday urged rich nations that have vaccinated their healthcare workers and senior citizens to share vaccines with more than 100 poor countries that have so far not administered a single dose.

According to the WHO, the number of vaccinations available has now overtaken the number of reported infections globally.

"In one sense, that's good news and a remarkable achievement in such a short timeframe," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a virtual news conference.

The Johns Hopkins University reported total COVID-19 cases globally at more than 105 million by Friday.

Tedros expressed his deep concern that more than three-quarters of the vaccinations produced so far are thought to be in 10 countries that account for almost 60 percent of global GDP.

"Almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, are yet to administer a single dose," he said.

He noted that some countries have already vaccinated large proportions of their population who are at lower risk of severe disease or death from COVID-19.

"All the governments have an obligation to protect their own people. But once countries with COVID-19 vaccines have vaccinated their own healthcare workers and older people, the best way to protect the rest of their own population is to share vaccines, so other countries can do the same," Tedros said.

The WHO chief stressed that the longer it takes to vaccinate those most at risk everywhere, the more opportunity the virus will have to mutate and evade vaccines.

"Unless we suppress the virus everywhere, we could end up back at square one," he said.

And Tedros also urged pharmaceutical companies to scale up vaccine production.

On Wednesday, COVAX, a global vaccine initiative led by the WHO and several other entities, published its forecast for the distribution of vaccines to participating countries. On Friday, Tedros pointed out that poorer countries are ready to go, but the vaccines are not yet ready.

WHO Europe Regional Director Hans Kluge echoed those views during an interview with the AFP news agency on Friday, telling rich nations "don't wait until you have 70 percent (of your population vaccinated) to share with the Balkans, to share with Central Asia, Africa".

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin announced in Beijing on Wednesday that, at the request of the WHO, China has decided to offer 10 million doses of vaccines to COVAX, mainly to meet the urgent need of the developing world.

"We hope that all countries, with the capacity to do so, will engage actively and take real steps to support COVAX, and ensure timely vaccine access for the developing world," Wang said.