Berlin, October 25 (BNA): The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on wealthier countries to step back from supplies of the coronavirus vaccine in favor of countries in need.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Sunday evening at the Global Health Summit in Berlin that the pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it.
He said the pandemic is far from over, with nearly 50,000 deaths per week.
Tedros cited the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of the population in every country by the end of the year.
“This goal is achievable,” Tedros stressed.
He thanked Germany for its generosity, but said more was needed. He said countries that have already achieved a vaccination rate of at least 40 percent – including all G20 countries – should allow the UN vaccination program COVAX or the African initiative AVAT to take the lead in providing vaccines.
Tedros warned that “no country can end the epidemic in isolation from the rest of the world.”
According to German Health Minister Jens Spahn, Germany is the second largest donor under the ACT-A pandemic cooperation framework, which also includes COVAX.
So far, the country, which has 66.2 percent of its fully immunized population, has contributed 2.2 billion euros ($2.56 billion), and by the end of the year more than 100 million doses of the vaccine will be donated.
The Global Health Summit began in Berlin on Sunday and will run through Tuesday, also in digital form. It deals, among other things, with lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic.
HF