WHO Reports Large Shortage Of Coronavirus Vaccines Across World

WHO Reports Large Shortage of Coronavirus Vaccines Across World

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2021) The world is facing a severe shortage of vaccines against the novel coronavirus, that aggravates serious inequalities among a number of countries in terms of access to the vaccines, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to Russia Melita Vujnovic said on Wednesday.

"Of course, the shortage of [COVID-19] vaccines across the world is large ... the vaccines are available in high-income countries, which leads to serious inequalities," Vujnovic said live on the Rossiya 24 channel.

Earlier in January, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus slammed high-income countries for scooping up COVID-19 vaccines and called for their equitable distribution. According to Tedros, even though the WHO's vaccine distribution mechanism, COVAX, secured contracts for 2 billion doses of vaccines, better-off countries were draining vaccine supplies by making additional bilateral deals. He urged countries that contracted more vaccines that they would need to donate and release them to COVAX immediately.