Guterres, in a statement, said that the global death toll
due to COVID-19 officially passed four million late Wednesday, marking yet
another “grim milestone” and underlining the urgent need for a Global Vaccine
Plan.
“Many of us know this loss directly and feel its pain.
“We mourn mothers and fathers who gave guidance, sons and
daughters who inspired us, grandmothers and grandfathers, who shared wisdom,
colleagues and friends who lifted our lives,” the secretary-general said.
He said that while vaccines “offer a ray of hope” most of
the world lagged as “the virus is
outpacing vaccine distribution.”
“This pandemic is clearly far from over; more than half its
victims died this year; many millions more are at risk if the virus is allowed
to spread like wildfire,” he warned.
According to him, the more COVID-19 spreads, the more
variants we see, some of which are more transmissible, more deadly and more
likely to undermine the effectiveness of current vaccines.
“Bridging the vaccine gap requires the greatest global
public health effort in history,” he added.
He, therefore, called for a Global Vaccine Plan to, at
least, double the production of vaccines and ensure equitable distribution,
using the UN-supported COVAX international COVID inoculation facility, as the
main platform.
Guterres said an effective global plan would support
implementation and financing, as well as increase countries’ readiness and
capacity to roll out immunisation programmes, just as it would help tackle “the
serious problem of vaccine hesitancy.”
“To realise this plan, I am calling for an Emergency Task
Force that brings together all the countries with vaccine production
capacities.
The secretary-general said that vaccine equity was “the
greatest immediate moral test of our times,” calling it a practical necessity.
“Until everyone is vaccinated, everyone is under threat,” he said. -NAN
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