On the way to the end of the pandemic, so far more people have been vaccinated than in all cases: data

(Reuters) – More people are now vaccinated against COVID-19 than they have been infected with the virus that has swept the globe in the past year, an important step on the road to ending the pandemic, according to data reported on Wednesday.

Despite the reference data, it remains unclear how long the world will be vaccinated. Many of those vaccinated received only one of the two required doses.

A total of 104.9 million doses of the vaccine were administered, according to Oxford University, Our World in Data here and the latest data Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. The total vaccinated now exceeds 104.1 million cases of COVID-19 infection in a global Reuters tracker here.

COVID-19 infections here are still growing in 44 countries, and the virus has killed at least 2.26 million people globally, according to the Reuters tracker. Health experts are fighting to vaccinate as many as possible in the face of new variants that are more contagious.

Duke University’s Global Center for Health Innovation here confirms global acquisitions of 7.7 billion doses, with another 5 billion doses being negotiated or reserved as optional extensions to existing transactions.

Israel is leading the world after delivering enough doses of vaccine to 28 percent of its population, assuming each person needs two doses, according to Our World in Data.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday called for better cooperation between nations to achieve global vaccination on a scale necessary to end the pandemic.

“Despite the growing number of vaccination options, current production capacity meets only a fraction of global needs,” he wrote in Foreign Policy.

“Allowing the majority of the world’s population to remain unvaccinated will not only perpetuate unnecessary disease and death and the pain of ongoing blockages, but will also generate new viral mutations as COVID-19 continues to spread among unprotected populations,” he wrote. / 3oGW3Qd.

Rich countries quarreling over the supply of COVID-19 vaccine must consider the situation in the world’s poorest parts, the WHO said last week, warning that the fire treasury “keeps the pandemic on”.

GRAPHIC-COVID-19 global tracker: here