By Catherine Ageno
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging all governments to step up vaccination efforts after the world reached a ‘tragic milestone’ of one million COVID-19 deaths so far in 2022.
According to the World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this tragic milestone must lead to more people being vaccinated against the disease.
He says the governments must ensure all health workers, older persons, and others at highest risk are fully vaccinated as part of efforts towards inoculating 70 percent of the global population.
Speaking during his regular briefing from Geneva on Thursday, the WHO Chief said this is particularly concerning because two-and-a-half years into the pandemic, countries have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths.
“We cannot say we are learning to live with COVID-19 when one million people have died with COVID-19 this year alone”, he said.
He was, however, pleased to see that some countries with the lowest vaccination rates are now gaining ground, especially in Africa.
In January, WHO and partners launched the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership, focused mainly on the 34 countries that were at or below 10 percent coverage. All but six are on the continent.
Today, only 10 countries still have less than 10 percent coverage, most of which are facing humanitarian emergencies.
Although he welcomed progress on coverage of high-priority groups, Tedros stressed that more must be done as one-third of the world’s population remains unvaccinated.
This includes two-thirds of health workers and three-quarters of older persons in low-income countries.
“All countries at all income levels must do more to vaccinate those most at risk, to ensure access to life-saving therapeutics, to continue testing and sequencing, and to set tailored, proportionate policies to limit transmission and save lives. This is the best way to drive a truly sustainable recovery,” he said.
In Uganda, the ministry of health has registered 169,000 cases cumulatively with a total of 3,628 deaths since the Covid-pandemic first broke out in 2019.
