US, India, China account for 60 per cent of 2 billion vaccine doses distributed globally: WHO

A drag queen performs on stage during a mobile vaccination drive and drag show at Mile Wide Beer Co. in Louisville, Kentucky. Pic/AFP

Of the two billion Covid-19 vaccine doses distributed globally till now, about 60 per cent have gone to just three countries - the US, India and China, a senior adviser at the WHO said.

General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Bruce Aylward made the comments at a press briefing on Friday. "This week, we will see over two billion doses and will probably pass the landmark in terms of the number of doses of the vaccines and new Covid-19 vaccines that have actually been developed. These have been distributed now in over 212 countries," Aylward said.

"If we look at that two billion doses, over 75 per cent of it has gone to just 10 countries. And in fact three countries - China, the US and India - account for about 60 per cent of those doses, he added.

He said while COVAX has played an important role in distributing the Covid-19 doses to 127 countries and getting several countries to start their vaccination drives, the challenge is in the access to the vaccines.

Aylward noted that at the other end of the spectrum , only about 0.5 per cent of doses globally have gone to the lowest income countries that account for about 10 per cent of the world's population. And even if we look at the lower middle income countries, it's only fractionally higher than that in terms of the coverage that we're getting.

Phuket set to reopen to vaxxed visitors

As Thailand continues to battle its third and worst wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities have said that the country's largest resort island Phuket remained on track to reopen to vaccinated foreign visitors from July. The reopening plan, part of a "Phuket Sandbox" programme, was approved on Friday at a meeting of the Centre for the Economic Situation Administration. Under the plan, foreign visitors from low-risk and medium-risk countries to Phuket could be exempted from mandatory quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated.

US adds over 5 lakh jobs as hiring rebounds

Although employers added 54,59,000 jobs in May, an improvement from April's sluggish gain, many companies are struggling to find enough workers as the economy rapidly recovers from the pandemic recession, said the Labour department. Last month's job gain was above April's revised total of 2,78,000, they said on Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 per cent from 6.1 per cent. The speed of the rebound from the pandemic recession has caught employers off guard and led to a scramble to hire.

17,33,80,006
TOTAL Number OF CORONAVIRUS

CASES IN THE WORLD

37,29,181
Number OF DEATHS WORLDWIDE

15,6153,933
Number OF RECOVERED PATIENTS

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