06/04/2021 8:47 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 06/04/2021 8:47 AM
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, affirmed this Friday that the approval of the Russian vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus is a technical decision of the group of specialists that studies it, and that
it cannot be advanced when it will be adopted.
"It is a group that works independently and that will report its conclusions once it completes its work," Ghebreyesus said by videoconference at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg when answering a question about whether the approval of the Russian vaccine by the WHO it is a matter
of "weeks and months"
.
In his speech, he stressed that the appearance of vaccines against the coronavirus "has shown the light at the end of the tunnel", but stressed the need for them to reach all countries in the world.
The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is still awaiting WHO approval.
Photo: REUTER
Let us remember that Sputnik is one of the vaccines on which Argentina has built its vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.
In addition to that, the country will begin to produce them locally as of next week.
The WHO, he added, has set as a goal that
10% of the population of each country will be vaccinated by next September
and 30% by the end of the year.
"No one is safe until we all are," Ghebreyesus stressed, insisting on the need for joint efforts to fight the pandemic.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko indicated that vaccinating 30-40% of the population does not provide herd immunity.
He added that some specialists consider that this immunity can be achieved only with the vaccination of 80-90%, although he specified that this is not the official position of his portfolio.
At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that
70% of Russians could be vaccinated in
September this year
.
However, the vaccination campaign in Russia is progressing slowly due to the reluctance of its inhabitants.
According to Murashko, to date, almost
15 million Russians
have been vaccinated with the full schedule
, just over 70 percent of the population.
In another panel of the Forum dedicated to the pandemic, the director of the WHO Emergency Program, Michael Ryan, warned in a telematic intervention that, despite the decrease in COVID-19 cases, the situation
"remains complex and the risks , very high "
.
"The pandemic
continues to be a serious catastrophe
. All countries need to take important measures. No one can relax and we must be prepared for a future pandemic. If we do not prepare we will have to pay a high price," he warned.
Ryan indicated that in the last five weeks in some regions of the world, such as Asia and Central America, a significant increase in infections has been observed.
He also highlighted the
risks of unequal distribution of vaccines between states
, as well as social inequality in the provision of health services within the same country, which, in his opinion, may be due to poor management.
Source: EFE
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