In message to WHA, Guterres affirms need for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines

In message to WHA, Guterres affirms need for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines

New York (UNA-OIC) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the need for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, urging countries to take bold decisions now to both end the crisis and build a safe and healthy future for all.

“World leaders must urgently step up with a global plan for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments,” Guterres said in a video message to the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN chief emphasized the need to fully fund established mechanisms for equitable vaccine distribution, warning against the dangers of “a two-speed global response”, a concern he has frequently expressed.

“Sadly, unless we act now, we face a situation in which rich countries vaccinate the majority of their people and open their economies, while the virus continues to cause deep suffering by circling and mutating in the poorest countries,” Guterres said, adding that “further spikes and surges could claim hundreds of thousands of lives, and slow the global economic recovery”.

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