Pandemic's 'Acute Phase' May End This Year if Vaccination Target Is Met: WHO

"It's in our hands. It's not a matter of chance. It's a matter of choice," he asserted.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

(File Photo)

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus remarked on Friday, 11 February, that the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic could end this year, if approximately 70 percent of the world gets fully vaccinated.

"Our expectation is that the acute phase of this pandemic will end this year, of course with one condition, the 70 percent vaccination [target is achieved] by mid this year around June, July," Ghebreyesus told reporters in South Africa.

"If that is to be done, the acute phase can really end, and that is what we are expecting. It’s in our hands. It’s not a matter of chance. It’s a matter of choice," he added.

Ghebreyesus was on a visit to Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a Cape Town based biotechnology company, which produced the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine made in Africa.

The vaccine was made using Moderna's sequence and will be ready for clinical trials in November this year.

Approval for usage is expected to be granted by 2024.

"We expect this vaccine to be more suited to the contexts in which it will be used, with fewer storage constraints and at a lower price," the WHO chief further said.

Only 11 percent of people living in Africa have so far been vaccinated.

The continent has the lowest vaccination rate in the world.

The WHO branch in Africa said last week that the vaccination rate must be boosted by "six times" to reach the 70 percent global vaccination target, Al Jazeera reported.

The World Bank estimates that the pandemic has pushed over 40 million people into extreme poverty in Africa.

(With inputs from Al Jazeera.)