World health body tells G7 vaccine inequity ‘unacceptable’

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief on Friday implored the G7 to prioritise equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines around the globe, branding the current imbalance morally inadmissible.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the uneven distribution of vaccines among rich and poor nations would not help to end the coronavirus pandemic.

“For the G7 now, the most important and the immediate support we need is vaccines, and vaccine equity,” he told a press conference.

Nearly 1.25 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been injected in at least 210 territories around the world, according to an AFP count.

Some 45 per cent of the doses have been administered in highincome countries accounting for 16 per cent of the global population.

Just 0.3 per cent have been administered in the 29 lowestincome countries, home to nine per cent of the world’s population.

“This kind of divide is unacceptable,” Tedros said.

“Not because of just a moral issue, but it’s unacceptable because we will not defeat the virus in a divided world.”

The Group of Seven industrial powers are holding a summit on June 11-13 in Cornwall, southwest England, hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The WHO says the G7 has the ability to fund the vaccines, tests and treatments needed to conquer the pandemic

– and knock down the barriers blocking faster production.

“It’s in every country’s interest in this world to share vaccines, and to help in any way possible,” said Tedros.

The WHO’s Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator programme for finding, developing and distributing coronavirus jabs, tests and therapeutics, is US$19 billion short of its US$22 billion target this year.

And a further US$35 to US$45 billion will be needed next year to ensure most adults around the world are immunised.

Tedros wants the G7 countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – to dig deep to help find solutions.

Around the world, the number of new Covid-19 has increased for the ninth straight week, and deaths have increased for the sixth straight week. — AFP