United Nations, March 29.- A new UNDP study showed that only a small proportion of anti-Covid-19 vaccines were being administered in developing countries, leading to widening disparities between rich and poor countries.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) document recalls that in September 2021, the World Health Organization set the global target of vaccinating 70 percent of the world population by mid-2022.
By then, just over 3 percent of people in low-income countries had been vaccinated with at least one dose, compared with 60.18 percent in high-income countries. Six months later, the world is still a long way from reaching the set goal, according to the text.
The total number of vaccines administered has increased enormously, but so has the unequal distribution in their distribution: Of the 10.7 billion doses distributed worldwide, only one percent reaches low-income countries.
Such a situation means, according to the UNDP, that 2,800 million people in the world are still waiting for their first vaccine.
The lack of equity in vaccination puts everyone’s safety at risk and is largely responsible for growing inequalities both between and within different countries, he said.
The study highlighted that two years after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the poorest regions are finding it harder than ever to recover economically, labor markets are suffering, public debt remains high and there is little money left in the coffers for investments left is other priorities.
It also showed that most of the most vulnerable countries in terms of vaccination against Covid-19 are in sub-Saharan Africa, and within that Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad, where less than one percent of the population has full vaccination has vaccination schedule.
Outside of Africa, Haiti and Yemen have yet to reach two percent coverage.
This analysis also reflects that if less developed countries had achieved the same immunization coverage as high-income countries (around 54 percent) in September last year, they would have increased their gross domestic product by $16.27 billion in 2021. (ACN)
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