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Developing nations' plea to world's wealthy at UN: Stop hoarding vaccines
CGTN
About 35 percent of people who have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine are from high-income countries. /AFP

About 35 percent of people who have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine are from high-income countries. /AFP

Leaders from developing nations warned the UN General Assembly this week that COVID-19 vaccine hoarding by wealthy countries left the door open for the emergence of new coronavirus variants even as infections already increase in many places.

The Philippines warned of a "man-made drought" of vaccines in poor countries, Peru said international solidarity had failed and Ghana lamented vaccine nationalism. The UN chief described the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as an "obscenity."

"Rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for trickles," Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told the high-level gathering on Tuesday.

"They now talk of booster shots, while developing countries consider half-doses just to get by. This is shocking beyond belief and must be condemned for what it is – a selfish act that can neither be justified rationally nor morally," he added.

About 35 percent of people who have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine were from high-income countries, and at least 28 percent were from Europe and North America, according to Reuters data from countries that report such figures.

A Kenyan soldier guards a consignment of COVID-19 vaccines sent from the COVAX facility, at Kenya Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, Kenya, August 6, 2021. /CFP

A Kenyan soldier guards a consignment of COVID-19 vaccines sent from the COVAX facility, at Kenya Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, Kenya, August 6, 2021. /CFP

The African continent bears the worst brunt of vaccine nationalism, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo told the gathering on Wednesday. 

"The inequity is deeply disturbing. Just 2 percent of the over 5 billion doses given globally have been administered in Africa," said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa.

Besides, around 3 percent of Africa's population is fully vaccinated, compared with 52 percent in the U.S. and 57 percent in the European Union, according to WHO data published early September.

Colombian President Ivan Duque said COVID-19 vaccines must be equitably distributed to avoid the creation of new, more fearsome variants of the coronavirus.

"If delays in the equal distribution of vaccines continue in all countries we, humanity, are exposed to new variants attacking us with greater ferocity. Global immunity requires solidarity, so hoarding cannot exist in the face of others' needs," said Colombian President Ivan Duque on Tuesday.

(With input from Reuters)

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