A health worker administers a jab of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine during a vaccination drive for people ages 30 to 39 in Mexico City (Marco Ugarte/AP)The global death toll from Covid-19 has passed four million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. The US and other wealthy countries have agreed to share at least a billion doses with struggling countries. The US has the world’s highest reported death toll, at over 600,000, or nearly one in seven deaths. The variants, uneven access to vaccines and the relaxation of precautions in wealthier countries are “a toxic combination that is very dangerous,” warned Ann Lindstrand, a top immunisation official at the World Health Organisation. Instead of treating the crisis as a “me-and-myself-and-my-country” problem, she said: “We need to get serious that this is a worldwide problem that needs worldwide solutions.”

Source: Irish Independent July 08, 2021 02:26 UTC