No nation safe, despite vaccination rate, if virus spreads: WHO chief

GENEVA World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned yesterday that no country should assume it is "out of the woods", no matter its vaccination rate, as long as the Sars-CoV-2 virus and its variants spread elsewhere.

"The world remains in a very dangerous situation," Dr Tedros told the opening of the annual assembly of health ministers from its 194 member states.

"As of today, more cases have been reported so far this year than in the whole of 2020. On current trends, the number of deaths will overtake last year's total within the next three weeks. This is very tragic," he said.

He said more than 75 per cent of all vaccines had been administered in just 10 countries.

"There is no diplomatic way to say it: A small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world's vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world."

The Covax facility, run by the WHO and the Gavi vaccine alliance, has delivered 72 million doses to 125 countries and economies since February - barely enough for 1 per cent of their populations, he said.

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He urged countries to donate vaccine doses to enable 10 per cent of the populations of all countries to be inoculated by September and 30 per cent by year-end. This means vaccinating 250 million more people in just four months, he said.

"This is crucial to stop disease and death, keep our healthcare workers safe, reopen our societies and economies," Dr Tedros said, adding that at least 115,000 healthcare workers have died since the pandemic began.