Failure to vaccinate everyone against Covid, will give rise to new variants: UN chief

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world that failure to vaccinate every person against Covid-19 will give rise to new variants of coronavirus.

Guterres stressed pushing the inoculation drive across the world and helping provide countries with jabs that do not have enough vaccines against the deadly virus.

The UN chief further warned that future variants of the virus will bring daily life and economies to a grinding halt.

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"The last two years have demonstrated a simple but brutal truth – if we leave anyone behind, in the end, we leave everyone behind. If we fail to vaccinate every person, we give rise to new variants that spread across borders and bring daily life and economies to a grinding halt", he said.

Guterres also raised concerns over the fact that the world is ‘nowhere near the targets set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which had given a call to vaccinate 40 percent of the earth’s population by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by the middle of 2022.

The UN chief urged the pharmaceutical companies around the world to "stand in solidarity with developing countries by sharing licenses, know-how, and technology so we can all find a way out of this pandemic."