UN official urges acceleration in coronavirus vaccinations

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. official spearheading global vaccination efforts against the coronavirus says the number of countries where 10% or less of the population has been vaccinated dropped from 34 to 18 since January and is calling for accelerated progress to end the pandemic. Assistant Secretary-General Ted Chaiban told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that with over 6 million lives lost to COVID-19, it is urgent to increase vaccinations in countries where it wasn’t possible to boost rates in 2021. Chaiban says more than 11.1 billion doses of vaccines have been administered globally. He says 124 of the 194 WHO member nations have vaccinated more than 40% of their populations and 51 countries have reached more than 70%.