The National News
Africa will not meet a 70 per cent vaccination target until 2024 — two years behind schedule
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said that more than half of the world’s countries have not met vaccination targets, as the fast-spreading Omicron variant upends holiday plans around the globe.
Mr Guterres, who was working from his home in New York due to a coronavirus outbreak among his senior staff, said 98 countries would not meet a UN target of vaccinating 40 per cent of their populations by the end of the year.
Some 40 countries have barely vaccinated 10 per cent of their populations and the poorest nations are faring even worse, he said. He added that a second World Health Organisation goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of people by mid-2022 is also at risk.
“Covid-19 is not going away,” Mr Guterres said in a video briefing with reporters.
“Transmissions show no sign of letting up. This is driven by vaccine inequity, hesitancy and complacency.”
Vaccination rates in rich countries are eight times higher than those in Africa, which will not reach the 70 per cent target until August 2024 at current rates, he said.
The uneven distribution of vaccines, he added, has given rise to mutations of the pathogen — as was the case with the Omicron variant, first detected by scientists in South Africa, where only about 26 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
“Vaccine inequity is giving variants a free pass to run wild — ravaging the health of people and economies in every corner of the globe,” he said.
Two months ago, @WHO unveiled a strategy to vaccinate 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of the year, but just days from the deadline, 98 countries have not been able to meet that end-of-year target – @antonioguterres
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) December 16, 2021
Mr Guterres made his comments as companies in New York and beyond cancelled annual…
