•The fear is that the emphasis on boosters is likely to widen the inequity gap between the rich and poor nations
•This is likely to give the virus an opportunity to spread n mutate further making the pandemic to be prolonged.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The World Health Organisation is optimistic that the Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world for the past two years could end this year.
The global health agency however noted that this can only happen if the world ended vaccine inequity and ensured access to vaccine for all countries.
“While no country is out of the woods from the pandemic, we have many tools to prevent and treat Covid-19. The longer inequity continues, the higher the risks of this virus evolving in ways we can prevent or predict. If we end inequity, we end the pandemic,” WHO DG Tedros Ghebreyesus said.
The fear is that the emphasis on boosters is likely to widen the inequity gap between the rich and poor nations, with some countries such as Israel already beginning to administer the fourth doses to the most vulnerable groups.
This is likely to give the virus an opportunity to spread n mutate further making the pandemic to be prolonged.
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic. Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the pandemic rather than ending it,” Ghebreyesus said.
Data shows that about 72 per cent of vaccines issued globally so far have been administered in high and upper middle income countries while only 0.9 per cent have been administered in low income countries.
Only 13 per cent of the target African population has been vaccinated compared to 50 per cent in the middle East, 65 per cent in Europe, 70 per cent in Asia-Pacific, 71 per cent in Latin America and 75 per cent in the US and Canada.
The call by WHO comes as the world battles another wave of infections that have been fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Kenya is battling a wave that has seen infections surge in the last two weeks of December, with the positivity rate going as high as 35 per cent.
The ministry has cautioned that higher hospitalization rates have ben observed among people yet to be vaccinated.
“About 67 per cent of the population admitted in critical care is not vaccinated so even without an additional shot you can see the protection accorded either with a single shot or the two shots of the vaccine,” Health DG Patrick Amoth said.
To date, Kenya has recorded 297,155 positive cases from a cumulative sample size of 3.03 million tests conducted to date, with 2,127 people testing positive for the disease on Saturday.
Similarly, 253,715 people have recovered from the disease; 204,590 from the home based care programme and 49,125 from various health facilities across the country.
Sadly, 5,381 fatalities have been recorded to date with three deaths having been reported on Saturday after ministry officials conducted facility re4cords audits.