Geneva/New York, October 7 – The World Health Organization has launched a global vaccination strategy that calls for meeting targets of vaccinating 40 percent of the world population by end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022. It has mobilized the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, UN agencies, organizations and civil society to ensure success of the strategy and end the deep inequality in vaccine distribution between rich and poor countries.
WHO said currently global vaccine production stands at about 1.5 billion doses per month, which should be sufficient to meet the demand of at least 11 billion vaccine doses to vaccinate 70 percent of the global population in 2022 provided there is equitable distribution of the doses. As of end of September 2021, just over 6 billion doses had already been administered worldwide.
The Geneva-based health organization had planned to vaccinate 10 percent of people in every country and territory by the end of September but it had not been able to do so in 56 countries, most of them in Africa and the Middle East.
“Science has played its part by delivering powerful, life-saving tools faster than for any outbreak in history,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the event launching the Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination ( Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022)
“But the concentration of those tools in the hands of a few countries and companies has led to a global catastrophe, with the rich protected while the poor remain exposed to a deadly virus. We can still achieve the targets for this year and next, but it will take a level of political commitment, action and cooperation, beyond what we have seen to date.”
“This is a costed, coordinated and credible path out of the COVID-19 pandemic for everyone, everywhere,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Without a coordinated, equitable approach, a reduction of cases in any one country will not be sustained over time. For everyone’s sake, we must urgently bring all countries to a high level of vaccination coverage.”
Both Guterres and Tedros Adhanom called on governments and manufacturers to make good on their commitments to fund and provide vaccine doses without further delays.
The strategy calls for vaccination of all older adults, health workers and high-risk groups of all ages in every country first followed by the full adult age group in every country and lastly extended vaccination of adolescents. It says substantial investment has been made to procure most of the required vaccine doses for low- and lower-middle-income countries through its vaccine program known as COVAX, the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and bilateral contracts.
The Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022 can be read in its entirety here.
See also: The Global COVID-19 Vaccination – Strategic Vision for 2022 Technical Document
Slide deck on the Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022
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