MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/: The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the growing COVID-19 incidence and the death toll in recent weeks as an alarming trend, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic told TASS on Sunday.
"As of April 12, 2021, according to the WHO, some 135,646,617 COVID-19 cases and 2,930,732 deaths were registered worldwide. Currently, we see a surge in the COVID-19 incidence for the seventh week in a row as well as an increase in the death toll over the past four weeks. Last week was the fourth in terms of the weekly COVID-19 incidence. These are alarming trends as we continue to see the impact of the new virus strains’ emergence, the lifting of restrictive measures and unfair vaccine distribution between countries," the WHO’s envoy stated.
Patients around the world have received nearly 780 mln doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Melita Vujnovic told.
"As of April 12, according to the WHO, nearly 780 mln doses of the vaccine have been administered around the world. Despite the significant progress achieved in 194 countries and territories out of 220, which have launched vaccination campaigns, a notable misbalance remains in the global distribution of vaccines," Vujnovic said.
More than 87% of these vaccines have been administered in the countries with big revenues or revenues above the average, while countries with low revenues have received just 0.2% of doses.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than 140.8 mln people have been infected worldwide and over 3 mln people have died. To date, Russia has recorded 4,702,101 coronavirus cases, while 4,326,780 people have recovered and 105,582 have died, according to the anti-coronavirus crisis center. The country’s government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.
