COVID-19: Global vaccination plan is 'the only way out' of pandemic, says UN chief

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres stressed on Tuesday that “the only way out” of the COVID-19 pandemic and the present “unjust” situation is through a global vaccination plan. Speaking at a meeting in New York of Foreign Ministers of the Group of 77 developing nations (G77) and China, Guterres noted how the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on both the developed and developing nations. 

UN chief said that “the only way out of a global pandemic – and out of this unjust and immoral situation – is through a global vaccination plan.” 

Guterres also affirmed that the United Nations supports the vaccination strategy which is set out by the World Health Organization (WHO) with an aim of inoculating 40% of people in all the nations by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022. The UN Secretary-General also said, “Everyone, everywhere, must have access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatment” while calling for support for the ACT accelerator and the COVAX facility.  

Weighing in on the global economic situation, the UN chief warned that the world economy is projected to grow by 5.9% this year but the pace of COVID-19 recovery remains uneven. He said that it is not surprising as the developed economies are investing 28% of their GDP in recovery from the pandemic. While middle-income countries are investing 6.5%, the least developed nations are investing 1.8%. 

For instance, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the cumulative economic growth per capita to be less than 75% less than the rest of the world, in the next five years. Guterres warned, “This dangerous divergence threatens to widen as growth rates are expected to decrease in 2022. Rising inflation could also have a negative impact on the cost of borrowing and servicing debt.”

'Blanket travel bans' will not prevent spread of Omicron

Meanwhile, the WHO has warned against the “blanket ban” imposed by over 50 nations across the globe as a way to limit the spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant. As the world swiftly geared up to tackle the highly-mutated variant of SARS-CoV-2 after South Africa reported the strain to WHO, the United Nations (UN) health agency has said that travel bans will not prevent the spread of the B.1.1.529 variant.

The WHO said, “Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods. In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivising countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data.”

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