There is "a horrifying inequity" between countries as far as access to coronavirus vaccines goes, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in remarks at Columbia University World Leaders Forum.

"More than 6 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally, and almost one-third of the world’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But those numbers mask a horrifying inequity. More than 75% of vaccines have gone to high-and upper-middle income countries. Low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world’s vaccines. In Africa, just 4% of people are fully vaccinated," he pointed out. "WHO’s targets are to vaccinate 40% of the population of every country by the end of this year, and 70% by the middle of next year. These targets are eminently achievable, but only if the countries and companies that control the global vaccine supply do their part," the WHO director general added.

According to him, "we need a global realization that no country can vaccinate its way out of this pandemic in isolation from the rest of the world." "The longer vaccine inequity persists, the longer the social and economic turmoil will continue, and the more opportunity the virus has to circulate and change into more dangerous variants," Adhanom emphasized.

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