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 WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that no
country should assume that it's "out of the woods", no matter its
vaccination rate, as long as the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants
spread elsewhere.
"The world remains in a very dangerous situation," Tedros told the
opening of the annual assembly of health ministers from its 194
member states.
"As of today, more cases have been reported so far this year than in
the whole of 2020. On current trends, the number of deaths will
overtake last year's total within the next three weeks. This is very
tragic," he said.
He said more than 75% of all vaccines had been administered in just
10 countries.
"There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries
that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the
fate of the rest of the world."
The COVAX facility, run by WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance, has
delivered 72 million vaccine doses to 125 countries and economies
since February - barely sufficient for 1% of their populations,
Tedros said.
He urged countries to donate vaccine doses to COVAX to enable 10% of
the populations of all countries to be inoculated by September and
30% by year-end. This meant vaccinating 250 million more people in
just four months, he said.
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 "This is crucial to stop
disease and death, keep our healthcare workers
safe, reopen our societies and economies,"
Tedros said. Tedros also called
on vaccine manufacturers to give COVAX the first right of refusal on
new volumes of vaccines, or to commit 50% of their volumes to COVAX
this year.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for the WHO to be empowered
to visit countries rapidly in case of outbreaks with potential to
spark a pandemic, and to access data.
Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in separate pre-recorded
remarks to the assembly, called for the U.N. agency's funding to be
improved and backed the idea of a new international treaty to
prevent pandemics.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Nick
Macfie)
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