UN chief calls for global vaccination plan

BRUSSELS - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on European parliaments to strive for a global COVID-19 vaccination plan to ensure equal access to vaccines around the world.

Addressing the virtual European Semester Conference, the inter-parliamentary conference on economic stability, Guterres said it was "not only unfair but also dangerous" that just ten countries account for 75 percent of global vaccinations to date.

Describing this as "unacceptable", the former Portuguese prime minister stressed the need for a global plan.

"I am calling for a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities to ensure that everyone has access to the vaccine," he said.

"Only then can we defeat COVID-19 and build more resilient economies and societies," he added.

Last week, Guterres proposed that the Group of 20 (G20) set up an emergency task force to prepare a Global Vaccination Plan besides COVAX, a joint international facility to help less wealthy countries to get vaccines.

The European Union (EU) had been squabbling with Britain over vaccine supplies and had threatened export control, only resulting in rising concerns in the rest of the world.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

According to information released by the World Health Organization on Friday, 251 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 70 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States.