U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres exhorted the world to make “concrete" progress within days toward a now-distant goal of vaccinating 40% of the global population against COVID-19 before the year ends.
“Vaccine inequity is giving variants a free pass to run wild,” Guterres told reporters by videoconference as countries grappled with the spread of the virus' omicron variant.
“The strategy of vaccine hoarding, the strategy of vaccine nationalism or the strategy of vaccine diplomacy has failed. This new variant has demonstrated this failure,” said Guterres, who came into contact last week with someone who tested positive for the virus; it's not clear which version. Guterres has since tested negative but said he’s remaining in isolation until the end of this week.
With little more than two weeks to go, 98 countries have yet to meet the WHO's 40%-vaccinated target, Guterres said. Forty countries haven't vaccinated even 10%.
“All countries, especially those that have potential of responsibilities, must take concrete action in the coming days to make greater progress” toward the year-end goal, Guterres said. He added that they need to “be far more ambitious” in moving toward the WHO's next benchmark: inoculating 70% of the world by the middle of next year, The AP reported.
