Nagpur: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday asked the countries to avoid giving out extra Covid-19 jabs until the year end and pointed out millions who still haven’t received even one single dose of the vaccine.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers.
” He added that the organization doesn’t want to see widespread use of boosters for healthy people who are fully vaccinated.
Tedros further urged the wealthy countries as well as the vaccine makers to prioritise giving the first jab to the health workers and vulnerable population of the poor countries rather than giving booster shots.
Earlier, WHO called for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine booster shots until the end of September to address the drastic inequity in dose distribution between the wealthy and poor countries.
In the latest, Tedros on Wednesday said that there has been a little change in the global situation till then.
“So today I am calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of this year,” he added.
Tedros while addressing the media said the high-income countries had promised to donate more than one billion vaccine doses to the poorer countries but less than 15 per cent of the doses donated have been materialised.
