Vaccinate whole world to end pandemic

UN chief Antonio Guterres told the all-virtual Davos forum that the world must vaccinate everybody against Covid-19 to ensure a way out of the pandemic.

"The last two years have demonstrated a simple but brutal truth -- if we leave anyone behind, we leave everyone behind," he said on Monday.

"If we fail to vaccinate every person, we give rise to new variants that spread across borders and bring daily life and economies to a grinding halt."

Guterres said the international community needs to "confront the pandemic with equity and fairness."

He noted that the World Health Organization unveiled a strategy last autumn to vaccinate 40 percent of the planet's population by the end of 2021 and 70 per cent by the middle of this year.

"We are nowhere near these targets," Guterres told the World Economic Forum.

"Vaccination rates in high-income countries are, shamefully, seven times higher than in African countries. We need vaccine equity, now," he added.

Guterres said pharmaceutical companies should "stand in solidarity with developing countries by sharing licenses, know-how and technology so we can all find a way out of this pandemic."

The coronavirus has killed at least 5,565,745 people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources yesterday.

China's postal service has ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries and urged the public to reduce orders from overseas after authorities claimed mail could be the source of recent outbreaks.

Multiple small outbreaks in recent weeks -- including in Beijing -- have tested China's strict policy of targeting zero Covid cases, which authorities have pursued even as the rest of the world has gradually reopened.

Australia suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic yesterday as a fast-moving Omicron outbreak continued to push up hospitalisation rates to record levels, even as daily infections eased slightly. A total of 77 deaths was recorded, exceeding the previous national high of 57 last Thursday, official data showed.

Japan's new Covid-19 cases jumped to a record yesterday, local media reported, as the government considered expanding measures to contain the infectious Omicron coronavirus variant.

The mayor of Moscow said he was extending Covid-19 home-working rules and guidance to protect elderly people until April 1 as the city braces for a sharp rise in infections with the Omicron variant.

A senior health official in Israel, meanwhie, said the country will continue to offer a fourth Covid-19 vaccine shot despite preliminary findings that it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, predicting contagions stoked by the variant will wane in a week.

The fastest country to roll out vaccinations a year ago, Israel last month started offering a fourth shot - also known as a second booster - to its most vulnerable and high-risk groups. It has held off on expanding the offer to the wider population.