Geneva, 23 May 2022 (TDI): The World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, remarked that one billion people in Lower-income countries are still unvaccinated. Only 57 countries have vaccinated 70 percent of their population against Covid-19, primarily in developed and high-income countries.
He addressed the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in Geneva under ‘Health for peace, peace for health.’ The event is scheduled from 22-28 May 2022.
World Health Assembly stands as the first in-person Health Assembly since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Along with WHO representatives, Delegates from different parts of the world draft public health policies and determine strategies for the guidance of public health work to improve health standards worldwide.
In addition to the progress in combating Covid-19, Gebreyesus emphasized that the increased transmission rate means more deaths. The emerging new variant and decline in testing and sequencing show that we are ‘blinding our served to the evolution of the virus,’ He added.
He highlighted the gaps in operational and financial capacity and insufficient political commitment to the commerce vaccination process in some countries. “And in all, we see vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation and disinformation,” he added.
Ending the Covid-19 pandemic
While appreciating the impact of science and the availability of necessary knowledge and tools to address pandemic COVID-19, Tedros warned that the Pandemic would not magically disappear. He said that 60 percent of the global population is vaccinated and emphasized working hard to reach 70 percent vaccination coverage.
WHO chief underscored supporting countries in turning vaccines into vaccination as soon as possible. He highlighted the lack of sufficient funds, supply-side problems, and testing for therapeutics as significant hurdles during this process.
Meanwhile, he shared the status of WHO measures to combat outbreaks of various human health threats, including Ebola in DR Congo, monkeypox in Africa, and hepatitis. He also stressed finding solutions to the humanitarian health crises in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, and Yemen.
“We face a formidable convergence of disease, drought, famine and war, fuelled by climate change, inequity and geopolitical rivalry”, remarked Gebreyesus.
Global Health Leaders Awards
The WHO chief also announced six awards to recognize the outstanding contributions to improving global health standards and demonstrated leadership and commitment to regional health issues. British-Lebanese psychiatrist Dr. Ahmed Hankir, youth sports advocate Ms. Ludmila Sofia Oliveira Varela, and polio workers in Afghanistan are among the winners.
