
No return to normal without universal COVID jabs: General Assembly President
The President of the General Assembly on Tuesday announced a New Year resolution on vaccine equity, calling on governments to come together on this issue ahead of a major event in mid-January.
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"" The President of the General Assembly on Tuesday announced a New Year resolution on vaccine equity, calling on governments to come together on this issue ahead of a major event in mid-January.
“Unless we can vaccinate the world, there is no way out of this. You see different types of variants coming out, and this is going to continue,” Abdulla Shahid told journalists in New York.
He said he would convene a high-level event in the General Assembly on 13 January with the goal of ensuring equitable access and delivery of vaccines “to everyone, everywhere, at the earliest.”
Leading up to the event, Member States will be able to register their support for universal COVID vaccinations in what Mr. Shahid is calling a New Year’s resolution.
“I want to see renewed political commitment and meaningful engagement to ensure universal vaccination,” he told correspondents.
Mr. Shahid noted that the international community had missed the target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) to inoculate 40 per cent of the world’s population by the end of this year, and that there are concerns about meeting the next target of 70 per cent by the middle of 2022. ""