Geneva, Switzerland
AP
A top international Red Cross organisation has announced a 100-million Swiss franc ($US110 million) plan to help support the immunisation of 500 million people worldwide against COVID-19 amid concerns about vast inequalities in the rollout of coronavirus vaccines between rich and poor countries.
Seniors wait to be vaccinated with China’s Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center set up at the Carmela Carvajal school in Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday, 3rd February, 2021. Chile is starting its vaccination plan for the general population on Wednesday, starting with seniors over 90 and health workers. PICTURE: AP Photo/Esteban Felix.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, an umbrella organization of national groups, says the world’s 50 poorest countries have received only 0.1 per cent of the total vaccine doses that have been administered worldwide so far – with 70 per cent administered in the 50 richest countries.
The federation on Thursday warned such inequality “could potentially backfire to deadly and devastating effect” because areas of the globe that remain unvaccinated could allow the virus to spread and mutate.
POPE SEEKS TO ENCOURAGE MUSICIANS SILENCED BY CORONAVIRUS
Pope Francis on Thursday offered encouragement to musicians who have been silenced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, acknowledging many have lost work and the ability to practice together due to closed concert halls and social distancing norms.
In a video message to a conference on liturgical music organized by the Vatican’s culture ministry, Francis recalled the importance of music to the life of the church, citing in particular its prominent role in Indigenous Catholic liturgies.
He said he hoped that once the pandemic passes the church’s musical life can be reborn “and we can resume singing and playing and enjoying together music and song”.
Unlike Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who is an accomplished pianist and liked to attend classical music concerts in the Vatican, Francis has never showed a particular passion for musical performance though he is known to be a big fan of the tango and milonga of his native Argentina.
Francis ended his message to the musicians with a question, asking them if the silence imposed on them as a result of the pandemic isn’t actually a sign that something new is coming.
“Is the silence we’re living in an emptiness or are we just in a phase of listening?” he asked. “Will [the silence now] let a new song emerge afterward?”
– AP
“Without equal distribution, even those who are vaccinated will not be safe,” federation Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.
The plan involves rollout of national vaccination campaigns, steps to build trust in vaccines and efforts to “counteract misinformation about their efficacy,” it added. The initiative is to begin with 66 national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and others are in talks with their respective governments.
Meanwhile, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the COVID-19 case fatality rate on the continent “is becoming very troubling” as it creeps ever higher than the global one.
John Nkengasong told reporters that the fatality rate on the 54-nation continent is now 2.6 per cent while the global one is 2.2 per cent.
Twenty African countries including South Africa, Sudan and Congo have rates higher than the global average as a resurgence of cases in parts of the continent has a far deadlier toll than the initial wave of infections last year.
Africa’s confirmed deaths in the pandemic are approaching 100,000, with more than 3.6 million cases overall.
Nkengasong says “it would be a tragedy if we begin to normalise these deaths”.
As COVID-19 vaccines finally begin to arrive on the continent, he says 16 countries have put in requests for a total of 114 million doses of the 670 million doses the African Union has secured from various sources.
Nkengasong did not name the countries but said “we hope in the next two to three weeks they should be having their vaccines.”
