Covid-19: WHO calls for temporary halt on vaccine boosters

Geneva: The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Wednesday, called for a temporary halt to at least until September on Covid-19 vaccine boosters, reports Reuters. The WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that it is to enable that at least 10 per cent of every country's population was vaccinated.

The organisation strongly calls for a halt as the gap between vaccination rates in rich and poor countries widens.

Tedros said that he understands the concerns of governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. Still, the organisation cannot accept the countries that had already used most of the global vaccine supply, using even more. According to WHO, high-income countries had administered around 50 doses of their every 100 people in May, and the statistics have doubled since. In contrast, low-income countries had administered only 1.5 doses for every 100 people due to lack of supply.

Tedros said that an immediate reversal is needed by supplying the majority of doses to low-income countries.

Some countries had started booster doses or weighing the need for the same. Germany had announced on Monday that they would begin offering booster does for vulnerable people from September. The United Arab Emirates also might start providing booster shots for fully vaccinated individuals at risk, three months after their second dose and after six months for others.

Last week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog received the third shot, which started the campaign for booster doses for people above 60 in the country.

In July, the US had signed a deal with Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech to buy 200 million vaccine doses for paediatric vaccination in the country and booster shots. However, health regulators here are assessing the need for booster doses.