WHO head warns world 'at perilous point' of pandemic

More than 4 million people have died from COVID-19 globally, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, warning the overall toll could be higher.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization's director general, warned during a media conference that the world is at a perilous point in the pandemic.

"Some countries with high vaccination coverage are now planning to rollout booster shots in the coming months and are dropping public health social measures and relaxing as though the pandemic is already over," he said. "However, compounded by fast moving variants and shocking inequity in vaccination, far too many countries in every region of the world are seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalization."

Tedros noted that this had led to severe shortage of oxygen and treatments, as well as rise in deaths in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The WHO head again voiced concerns over vaccine nationalism, saying "a handful of nations have taken the lion's share", which is "morally indefensible".

"At this stage in the pandemic, the fact that millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent," Tedros said.

"Variants are currently winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production and distribution, which also threatens the global economic recovery."

He hopes that this will change moving forward and called on the world to come together to tackle the pandemic collectively.

The WHO head hopes that when the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet on July 9 and 10, leaders will take necessary steps to provide funding to scale up equitable manufacturing and distribution of health tools to "end the acute stage" of the pandemic.

"I have called for 10 percent of people in all countries to be vaccinated by September and for that figure to rise to 40 percent by the end of the year," Tedros said. "It would position the world on the path to vaccinating 70 percent of people in all countries by the middle of 2022."

He added: "I call on the G20 finance ministers and other leaders to get behind these targets because it is the fastest way to end the acute stage of the pandemic, save lives and livelihoods, and drive a truly global economic recovery."