World has entered stage of "vaccine apartheid" - WHO head

ZURICH, May 17 (Reuters) - The world has reached a situation of "vaccine apartheid", World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday, and was no longer just at risk of that status.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) speaks during the opening of the 148th session of the Executive Board on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Geneva, Switzerland, January 18, 2021. Christopher Black/WHO/Handout/File Photo

"The big problem is a lack of sharing. So the solution is more sharing," he told a virtual Paris Peace Forum event.

Earlier, he called on COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to make shots available to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility sooner than planned due to a supply shortfall left by Indian export disruptions. read more

Reporting by Emma Frage and Michael Shields

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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