"I urge world leaders to fully support the Global Vaccination Strategy I launched with the World Health Organization last month. We need to get vaccines into the arms of 40% of people in all countries by the end of this year — and 70% by mid-2022. I call on them to deliver with urgency and scale, address funding gaps and coordinate their actions for success," he said.
He continued, "This devastating milestone reminds us that we are failing much of the world. While wealthy countries are rolling-out third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, only about 5% of people in Africa are fully vaccinated. This is a global shame."
To promote the global vaccination campaign, the UN and WHO have established the COVAX mechanism - states provide vaccines produced by them, which are later sent to countries in need. The UN has repeatedly noted that manufacturing countries do not provide enough drugs to ensure the required rates of vaccination, especially in African countries.
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