According to a WHO estimate published this Thursday, of the 135 million health professionals in the world, “between 80,000 and 180,000″ died from Covid-19 between the start of the pandemic in January 2020 and May 2021. ” These estimates stem from the 3.45 million deaths linked to Covid-19 declared to the WHO in May 2021; a number which, in itself, is much lower than the actual number of deaths, ”the organization said in a statement.
“This is why it is essential that healthcare professionals be vaccinated as a priority. Data from 119 countries suggests that, on average, two in five healthcare professionals worldwide are fully immunized, ”WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, presenting the data.
Less than one in 10 caregivers vaccinated in Africa
“But, of course, this average masks huge differences between regions and economic groups. In Africa, less than one in 10 health professionals have been fully immunized. At the same time, in most high-income countries, more than 80% of health workers are fully immunized, ”he continued. Faced with this observation, the WHO calls on all countries to ensure that all health professionals are vaccinated as a priority against Covid-19, alongside other groups at risk.
“More than 10 months after the approval of the first vaccines, the fact that millions of healthcare professionals still have not been vaccinated is in itself a condemnation of the countries and companies that control the global vaccine supply”, also said the head of the WHO.
Dr Tedros continues to denounce the inequity of vaccines and relentlessly calls on countries with enough doses to share them, while the international Covax mechanism is slipping for lack of sufficient vaccines. “The G20 countries have pledged to donate more than 1.2 billion doses of vaccine to Covax. So far, only 150 million have been delivered. For most donations, we don’t have a timeline. We don’t know how many doses Covax will receive, or when, ”he lamented.