WHO: "Rich countries believe pandemic is not their problem"

In North America, Europe, China, Saudi Arabia and parts of Latin America, at least half of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.

Africa and parts of Southeast Asia, on the other hand, are far behind.

The World Health Organization's Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warns that rich countries do not take sufficient responsibility, and demands a fairer vaccine distribution.

- High-income countries that vaccinate their populations to a large extent are beginning to regard the covid-19 pandemic as not being their problem.

It is dangerous, he says at a press conference.

Over 60,000 deaths

SVT has previously reported that a third wave of the corona pandemic has hit a number of African countries.

By early July, nearly six million cases of infection and about 150,000 deaths had been reported.

However, due to a limited testing capacity, the actual number is feared to be much higher.

South Africa, Nambia and Tunisia are the countries in Africa that have reported the most deaths in the past week.

More than 60,000 people have died from covid-19 in South Africa, which has been hardest hit by the virus.

The spread of infection has meant severe restrictions in the country, which has damaged an already vulnerable economy.

During the first three months of the year, the unemployment figures were at a record high 32.6 percent, according to TT.

Indonesia risks becoming an epicenter

Parts of Southeast Asia are also hard hit by the Pandemic's third wave.

In Indonesia, new record numbers were recorded with over 54,000 infected and 991 dead with covid-19 on Wednesday.

The rapid spread of the infection, driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus, has led to overcrowded hospitals, people dying in their homes and relatives desperately trying to get hold of oxygen to treat the sick.

"Indonesia may be the epicenter of the pandemic, but it is already its epicenter in Asia," said Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Griffith University in Australia.

According to him, the actual number of infections in the country can exceed 100,000 infected per day and the risk is that the number will double by the end of the month, with as many as 2,000 deaths with covid-19 per day.

To reduce the gap in vaccine distribution between rich and poor countries, WHO urges vaccine companies to donate vaccine doses to the global vaccine collaboration Covax.