About 75% of this year’s vaccines come from the five members of the WTO, it said. (Representative)
Geneva:
The five member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will account for three-quarters of the entire global production of COVID-19 vaccines this year alone, Director-General Ngoji Okonjo-Iwela said on Wednesday.
“Production remains highly centralized – about 75 percent of this year’s vaccines come from the five WTO members – China, India, Germany, the United States and France,” the WTO director-general said in a high-level dialogue. ” “Expanding COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing to promote equitable access.”
Okonjo-Iwela said discriminatory access to vaccines is the root cause of the uneven recovery of the global economy, with developed economies rapidly rebounding while others are lagging behind.
The lack of complete transparency in vaccine supply deals is another cause for concern, he said, adding that the world administered 1.1 billion COVID vaccine doses worldwide in June.
“Of those 1.1 billion doses in June, only 1.4 percent went to Africans, who make up 17 percent of the global population. Only 0.24 percent went to people in low-income countries. And both stocks fell further in the first of July. half of it,” she said.
“In developed countries, 94 doses have been administered for every 100 residents. In Africa, the figure is 4.5 percent. In low-income countries, it is 1.6 percent. In Africa, only 20 million people, or 1.5 per developed countries This percentage of the population is fully vaccinated, compared to 42 per cent in the U.S. We cannot accept this for ethical, practical and economic reasons.”
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