World Health Organisation asks South-East Asian nations to scale up Covid vaccination

The World Health Organisation on Friday referred to as on nations in South-East Asia to speed up Covid-19 vaccination protection because the area once more witnessing an increase in instances.

While important progress has been made within the area in direction of vaccinating populations in opposition to Covid-19, a number of nations missed the worldwide goal to completely vaccinate 70 per cent of their complete inhabitants with all main doses of the vaccine by June finish, a WHO assertion mentioned.

“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 prioritizing health workers, older adults, those with underlying health conditions, and pregnant women. The pandemic is not over yet, we must scale up our efforts to protect communities,” mentioned Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia.

She congratulated nations which have achieved the goal of 70 per cent of their inhabitants finishing main sequence of Covid-19 vaccination.

Bhutan has 89 per cent inhabitants vaccinated with all main doses, Thailand 79.9 per cent, Maldives 70.4 per cent and Bangladesh 70.2 per cent. Nepal with 69.3 % is near reaching the worldwide June finish vaccination purpose, she mentioned.

“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 Singh mentioned.

“We must acknowledge India’s impressive efforts and its support to other countries in providing Covid-19 vaccines at a time when vaccine supplies were a constraint globally,” she added.

“While scaling up vaccination coverage, it is also important how it is achieved,” the Regional Director mentioned.

“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 co-morbidities,” she mentioned.

WHO recommends nations prioritize main sequence and booster doses to all excessive precedence teams – and develop vaccination to decrease precedence teams after excessive protection charges are achieved in excessive precedence teams.

“Even for boosters, the focus must be on protecting the vulnerable and high-risk groups rapidly, and on a priority,” Dr Singh mentioned.

While pandemic fatigue is comprehensible, it’s not the time to be complacent, she acknowledged.

Covid-19 just isn’t a gentle illness, even when one is match and wholesome there isn’t any assure that the an infection can be delicate. Vaccination improves the possibilities of stopping a extreme type of Covid-19, which may lead to hospitalization, dying or long-term issues. All nations have entry to a number of Covid-19 vaccines now and there’s no scarcity of vaccines, she mentioned.

Countries should additionally proceed to undertake situation-specific public well being and social measures, the Regional Director emphasised.

Home to 1 / 4 of the world’s inhabitants with over 2 billion individuals, the WHO South-East Asia Region has 64.1 per cent inhabitants who’ve accomplished their Covid-19 main vaccination sequence, and 71.7 per cent inhabitants who’ve taken at the least one dose of the vaccine, the assertion mentioned.

Ten of the 11 Member nations of the Region, besides DPR Korea, are vaccinating their inhabitants in opposition to Covid-19, it added.