Covid-19: G20 wants the world to be fully vaccinated by mid-2022
G20 ministers support the goal of having 70% of the world vaccinated against Covid-19 by the middle of next year.
On Friday (local time), the health and finance ministers of the world’s 20 largest economies (G20) gathered for their first joint meeting under the Italian presidency of the G20, and agreed to pursue the goal with the aim to bring the pandemic under control everywhere as soon as possible. as possible.
A secondary target has also been set – 40% of the population in all countries vaccinated by the end of this year.
The group said in a press release it would “take all necessary steps to make progress towards the global goals.”
READ MORE:
* Covid-19: US FDA clears Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11
* Covid-19: Places of interest for the Delta epidemic – October 30
* Covid-19: Christchurch, Tonga case shows greater community spread is likely
* Covid-19: two buses from Christchurch are places of interest
* Covid-19: Khloe Kardashian tests positive again, her 3-year-old daughter True also infected
The G20’s original target was 70 percent of immunizations by fall 2022, its revised dates align with target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations earlier this month. The latter estimated that 11 billion doses of vaccine would be needed to achieve this goal – 6.97 billion doses had been administered so far with a worldwide production of nearly 1.5 billion doses per month.
At present, according to Our world in data, 49.1% of the world’s population had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 23.6 million doses administered daily.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the G20 countries to coordinate their actions to succeed in this space.
Ben Curtis / AP
The goal is to have 70% of the world’s population vaccinated by mid-2022.
“This is the only way to end the pandemic for everyone, everywhere”, he told the media at the summit.
Until now, he believed that coordinated global action had “taken a back seat” to vaccine hoarding and vaccine nationalism.
“People in wealthier countries receive third doses of the vaccine, while only 5% of Africans are fully immunized. “
New Zealand was finalizing the rollout of a booster for some fully vaccinated people, potentially before Christmas, and Australia was starting its booster program in early November. About 1.5 million Americans received a booster injection in the first five days after regulators cleared the additional fire.
Only 3.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a vaccine, Our world in data find.
Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya were among the countries with the lowest vaccination rates – with only 0.9%, 1.4% and 2.8% of the respective rates fully vaccinated populations.
G20 ministers also agreed to help increase the supply of vaccines and medical supplies to developing countries and remove supply and funding constraints.
At the meeting, the G20 agreed to establish a joint finance and health task force with the aim of strengthening collaboration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The group would be chaired by the 2021 and 2022 G20 presidencies and report to health and finance ministers early next year.
He said this endeavor would leave the international community “better prepared” for future epidemics.
The joint WHO-UN strategy, published in early October, worked in the same direction. Its ultimate goal was to minimize death, serious illness and the overall disease burden through vaccination.
Bernd von Jutrczenka / Getty Images
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus believes it is still possible to see 40% of the world’s population vaccinated by the end of the year and 70% by mid-2022, if all the world works together.
The previous WHO target of 10% of all countries vaccinated by the end of September has not been met by 56 countries, the vast majority in Africa and the Middle East.
Its updated strategy was a “costed, coordinated and credible path” out of the pandemic, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the time.
He believed that it was possible to achieve the goals in late 2021 and mid-2022, but it required a higher level of political commitment, action and cooperation than what had already been seen.
“Without a coordinated and equitable approach, a reduction in cases in a country will not be sustainable over time. For the good of all, we urgently need to bring all countries to a high level of immunization coverage.