The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated his warnings that the world will not be safe from the threat of COVID-19, regardless of vaccination levels in any country, until the virus is controlled everywhere, including in the last country. Ghebreyesus stated, "Countries around the world have reached the number of deaths that occurred due to the virus last year, but this happened in just the last two weeks." He cautioned in a speech that opened the virtual 74th World Health Assembly today that changes to the virus, known as variants, could bring the fight back to square one.
He mentioned that the COVAX facility, established by the organization to supply vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, does not have enough vaccines. Dr. Tedros urged countries with surplus vaccines to share them with the international facility. He called for support for the vaccination initiative presented at the World Health Assembly to achieve the goal of vaccinating up to 10% of the world’s population by September and 30% by the end of the year.
He also urged countries to support the India and South Africa initiative at the World Trade Organization, which calls for waiving intellectual property rights to allow for the manufacturing and production of vaccines in as many countries as possible. He confirmed that the world remains in a fragile situation regarding COVID-19.
