The World Health Organisation (WHO) believes that the images of crowds of fans celebrating the Euro 2020 final did little to help the global fight against the pandemic.
While many people in Europe have already been vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to the global average, hundreds of millions of people in other regions were not yet protected, WHO emergency coordinator, Mike Ryan, said in Geneva on Monday.
Ryan told a news conference that people see the celebrations during the European championship and think they’re having a lot of fun in Europe.
He said that made it harder to persuade people in poorer regions with no access to vaccine to continue adhering to hygiene measures against the virus.
“The reality for most of the world is, it’s not back to normal life.
“It’s really important that we show that solidarity,’’ Ryan said.
WHO Chief Tedros Ghebreyesus urged manufacturers, Moderna and Pfizer, not to supply booster vaccines to rich countries yet.
He said the vaccine doses should first go to countries that have not even been able to vaccinate their health workers and risk groups yet.
“The world should battle together to put out the COVID-19 pandemic inferno everywhere,’’ Tedros said.
He said the rate of global deaths increased in the previous week for the first time after 10 weeks of falling numbers.
Infection numbers rose in almost all regions.
“The Delta variant is ripping around the world at a scorching pace, driving a new spike in COVID-19 cases and death,’’.
