Vaccination in Asia-Pacific to reach by 2021: WHO

Agency: The World Health Organization has said that countries in Asia-Pacific region are not guaranteed to have early access to COVID-19 vaccine.

Some countries have independent vaccine purchase agreement and they will start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, writes the Associated Press.  However, other countries could see vaccination only in the middle or late 2021, according to Dr Socorro Escalante, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies.

The WHO has urged the residents in the Asia-Pacific region to adopt a long-term approach to the pandemic.

Till now, the virus has infected more than 74 million people and killed more than 1.6 million people across the globe. Likewise, 41.9 million people have recovered from the disease.