The World Health Organization and its partners have called for intensified vaccination around the world against diseases such as measles and polio, after the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted access to conventional vaccinations.
“If we want to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases such as measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, we must protect the planned vaccination services in every country in the world,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Gebreyesus at the weekly COVID-19 webinar.
“Vaccines will help us end the COVID-19 pandemic, but only if we ensure equitable access for all countries and build powerful delivery systems.”
The head of the WHO said that the global pandemic continues to grow.
The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing for the ninth week in a row, and the number of deaths is increasing for the sixth week in a row.
“For comparison: last week there were almost as many cases of infection in the world as in the first five months of the pandemic,” Tedros said.