The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has driven approximately 31 million additional people around the world into extreme poverty, hindering global progress in eradicating poverty for four years, according to the fifth annual Goalkeeper report by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The report, which examines global progress in vaccination access, poverty reduction, and other health issues, found that the pandemic resulted in a significant decline in routine vaccination rates for children, widened the education gap between poor and rich countries, and increased health disparities.
The report calls on world leaders to make necessary long-term investments to develop and manufacture vaccines and enhance public health infrastructure, particularly in low-income countries, where many people have been unable to avoid some of the worst impacts of the pandemic, as noted by CNBC and reviewed by Al Arabiya.net.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, stated that COVID has caused a "significant" reversal in various global health efforts. He added, "Instead of lifting tens of millions of people out of extreme poverty, 31 million new people have fallen into extreme poverty. We are seeing a stagnation in progress on other indicators, from stunting and nutrition to some education challenges."
Global health officials and medical experts fear that the economic impact may worsen. Vaccination rates remain low in many parts of the world, and new variants are emerging, leading to further outbreaks and requiring countries to reimplement public health measures.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 5.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. However, 80% of these doses have gone to high or middle-income countries. The percentage of the global population living in extreme poverty, defined as living on $1.90 a day, decreased from 37% to 9% over the past two decades. Nevertheless, the decline in poverty levels has stalled, and it is likely to remain at current levels in the coming years as the virus continues to spread, according to the report.
It stated, "With the majority of wealthy countries largely vaccinated, most will see a recovery in per capita income before the crisis this year. However, by next year, two-thirds of developing countries will still be below their per capita levels of 2019... and some countries will face many more years before returning to 2019 levels."
