WHO Announces 5.5 Billion Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines

About 5.5 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide, said Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization (WHO). 80% of these vaccines are used in high- and middle-income countries. Speech by the head of WHO published on the organization’s website.

According to the head of WHO, no low-income country has reached the target of vaccination of 10% of the population. Among countries with high incomes, this indicator has reached 90%, in 70% of such countries 40% of the population are vaccinated. Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus added that high-income countries donated only 15% of the promised 1 billion vaccines under the Covax program (cooperation to ensure equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines between countries).

“Manufacturers have pledged to prioritize meeting the needs of low-income countries under the Covax mechanism. Enough promises for us. We do not want promises, we just want vaccines, ”added the head of WHO.

According to him, now almost 70 thousand people die from the coronavirus every week.

According to experts, societies with developed economies are also directly interested in vaccination of the population of low-income countries. At the moment, the coronavirus continues to actively change, which leads to the emergence of new dangerous mutations, including potentially resistant to vaccines. This process is taking place precisely in countries where universal vaccination is at an early stage, spoke formerly WHO Emergency Program Director Michael Ryan.

WHO called in August to stop vaccination of already vaccinated people in order to achieve herd immunity at the global level. In some countries, including Russia, the process of revaccination of the population has already been launched, writes Kommersant.

As of September 8, more than 223 million cases of coronavirus infection were detected in the world. More than 4.6 million cases have died.