50% fully vaccinated in richest nations, only 0.6% in poorest

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

The World Health Organisation’s call to the developed nations to delay booster shots got a fillip with the first major analysis of global vaccination progress today revealing huge inequities across regions.

IFC Study Reveals inequities

50% fully vaccinated in high-income countries

40-43% got 2 doses in upper-middle-income nations

7-8% inoculated in lower-middle-income countries

0.6% coverage in case of low-income nations

Encouraging aggregates

• 1/4th of the world population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19
• 1/3rd of the global populace has been administered at least 1 dose of vaccine

Philip Schellekens, senior economic adviser at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank group), on Friday published data showing one fourth of the world was now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, but huge inequities persisted with 50 per cent people fully vaccinated in the richest nations as against mere 0.6 per cent in the poorest nations.

The analysis reveals more than 1/3 of the world has been vaccinated with at least one dose, but here too the gains are skewed. “Vaccination progress varies enormously once we look underneath the aggregate. While high-income countries are around 50 per cent fully vaccinated and upper-middle-income ones 40-43 per cent, the poorer half of the world lags considerably. Lower-middle-income countries stand at merely 7-8 per cent and low-income countries at 0.6 per cent,” data show.

Discrepancies in vaccination rates with at least one dose are also stark. Due to mass vaccinations in China, high-income and upper-middle-income countries have similar rates of 60 per cent when it comes to people vaccinated with at least one dose. The WHO said inequities in inoculation will mar the global march against the pandemic.