Blanket vaccine booster programs may prolong Covid-19 pandemic: WHO chief

Blanket vaccine booster programs are likely to prolong the Covid-19 pandemic rather than ending it, as a result of unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing that “diverting supply to countries already having high levels of vaccination coverage” will give the virus “more opportunity to spread and mutate”, Xinhua news agency reported.

WHO has previously called on countries to reach a target of vaccinating 40 percent of their populations by the end of the year, but only half of WHO member states have been able to make it, which has largely been a result of the global inequity of vaccine distribution, according to Tedros.

While some countries are now rolling out blanket vaccine booster programs, three in four health workers in Africa still remain unvaccinated by the end of 2021, a year since the first vaccines were administered, he said.

If those vaccines had been distributed equitably, the 40 percent target could have been reached in every country by September, he added.

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