Geneva: The World Health Organization said COVID-19 is spreading faster than the global distribution of vaccines and that while it welcomes the G7’s commitment to share hundreds of millions of doses, more is needed to end the pandemic.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, told reporters from the agency’s Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters on Monday that the G7’s pledge to provide a billion doses in the next two years is a big help, but many more are required.
He said to end the pandemic by next year’s G7 summit in Germany, 11 billion doses are needed.
“We need more, and we need them faster,” he said. “Right now, the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines.”
He said there are enough doses to drive down transmission and save lives if only they were distributed to where they are needed — and not next year, but now.
The urgency comes amid the spread of highly contagious variants of the virus that threaten the efficacy of current vaccines. Despite the number of new COVID-19 cases dropping globally, deaths have not dropped as fast and the overall decline masks increases in many other countries, such as those in Africa, he said.
