WHO’s push for 70% vaccination, equitable use of strategies on 2 years of Covid-19 pandemic

World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that every country should vaccinate 70% of its population for ending the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic this year.

Director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday said that the world can end the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic this year if every nation could vaccinate 70% of their populations against the disease, particularly the at-risk populations. He also called for the strategies and the tools available to be used in a “comprehensive and equitable” way.

“This year we could end the acute phase of the #COVID19 pandemic if we vaccinate 70% of the population of every country,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. In picture - A health campaign poster in an underpass leading to Westminster underground train station in London. (AP | Representational Image)

The remarks from the UN health body’s chief came on Sunday, a day on which the WHO declared the Covid-19 pandemic a public health emergency of international concern two years ago in 2020.

“#OnThisDay 2 years ago I declared the #COVID19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern to alert the world to this threat. @WHO had been sharing advice with countries to help them respond since early Jan 2020 & we haven't stopped since,” Ghebreyesus wrote in a tweet.

“This year we could end the acute phase of the #COVID19 pandemic if we vaccinate 70% of the population of every country, with a focus on the most at-risk groups, and use all strategies and tools in a comprehensive and equitable way,” Ghebreyesus said in a subsequent tweet.

Earlier on January 24, during his opening remarks at the 150th session of the WHO’s executive board meeting, he said that the world would be living with Covid for the “foreseeable future”. He also said that in two years the world has seen nearly 350 million cases and 5.5 million deaths, numbers which he called an “underestimate”.

He said that the WHO has been providing strategies, tools, technical and operational support to countries during the pandemic. “If countries use all of these strategies and tools in a comprehensive way, we can end the acute phase of the pandemic this year - we can end Covid-19 as a global health emergency, and we can do it this year,” he said.

Further, he also noted that countries must aim for “reducing mortality through strong clinical management, beginning with primary health care, and equitable access to diagnostics, oxygen and antivirals at the point of care.”

While vaccines alone were not a “golden ticket” out of the pandemic, there is no other path out if the target of 70% vaccinations in every country was achieved, he further said.