The head of the World Health Organization has called for a halt on additional COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September to allow low-income countries to get their people inoculated.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the call during a news conference, Trend reports citing NHK.

As the highly transmissible Delta variant is spreading globally, Israel began offering a third vaccine dose to people over 60 at the beginning of this month.

Britain and Germany also plan to launch a booster vaccine drive in September, mainly covering elderly people.

Tedros said he understands the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant.

But he went on to say, "We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world's most vulnerable people remain unprotected."

Tedros called for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of next month, so that at least 10 percent of the population of every country can be vaccinated.

The WHO has expressed concerns about the widening gap between vaccinations in wealthy and low-income countries. It said more than 80 percent of vaccine doses have gone to high- and upper-middle income nations, even though they account for less than half of the world's population.

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