WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the landmark
had been reached, more than 18 months since the outbreak emerged in China in
December 2019.
“The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic. We have
just passed the tragic milestone of four million recorded Covid-19 deaths,
which likely underestimates the overall toll,” Tedros told a press conference
at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
The UN health agency’s director-general said some countries
with high vaccination coverage were now “relaxing as though the pandemic is
already over”, dropping public health measures and planning to roll out booster
shots.
But he said that far too many countries all over the world
were seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalisation, due to fast-moving virus
variants and a “shocking inequity” in global access to vaccines.
“This is leading to an acute shortage of oxygen, treatments
and driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America,” Tedros
said.
“Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken
the lion’s share, is morally indefensible
“At this stage in the pandemic, the fact that millions of
health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent.”
Tedros said variants were currently outpacing vaccines due
to the inequitable distribution of available doses, which he said was also
threatening the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.
“From a moral, epidemiological or economic point view, now
is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic
collectively.”
AFP