Express News Service
NEW DELHI: As Covid-19 cases are seeing a spike in India and other Southeast Asian countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday called on them to accelerate Covid-19 vaccination coverage.
The world health body also acknowledged India’s impressive efforts and its support to other countries in providing Covid vaccines when there was a constraint globally.
WHO said India would soon mark 2 billion doses, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all vaccine doses administered in the region.
It said that while significant progress has been made in the region towards vaccinating populations against Covid-19, several countries missed the global target to fully vaccinate 70 percent of their total population with all primary vaccine doses by June end, responsible for various regions witnessing a surge in cases.
“We know that the current Covid-19 vaccines provide high levels of protection against severe disease and death for all variants. We must focus on rapidly achieving high vaccination coverage, prioritising health workers, older adults, those with underlying health conditions, and pregnant women,” said Regional Director, WHO (South-East Asia), Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh.
The pandemic is not over yet; we must scale up our efforts to protect communities, she said.
She congratulated countries that have achieved the target of 70 per cent of their population completing the primary series of Covid-19 vaccination.
Bhutan has 89 per cent of the population vaccinated with all primary doses, Thailand 79.9 per cent, Maldives 70.4 per cent, and Bangladesh 70.2 per cent. Nepal’s 69.3 per cent is close to achieving the global vaccination goal by June end.
“India, which will soon mark 2 billion COVID-19 doses, accounts for nearly two-thirds of all Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the Region,” Dr Khetrapal Singh said, adding that, “We must acknowledge India’s impressive efforts and its support to other countries in providing Covid-19 vaccines when vaccine supplies were a constraint globally.”
The regional director said many deaths from Covid-19 can be avoided if vaccinations specifically target groups such as healthcare and other frontline workers, the elderly and those with comorbidities.
The WHO Southeast Asia Region has 64.1 percent population who have completed their Covid-19 primary vaccination series and 71.7 percent population who have taken at least one dose of the vaccine while being home to a quarter of the world’s population with over 2 billion people.
