“We are working to obtain a better understanding of COVID-19 variants, but we cannot do this without enough in-depth information about how the virus circulates,” Al-Mandhari said.
“We encourage all countries to enhance sequencing capacity and data sharing,” Al-Mandhari added, pointing out that “the more we know about the virus and the impact of its different strains, the better we can adapt our response to defeat it.”
He said: “WHO, of course, is willing to play its role in supporting data collection, analysis, sharing and management.”
Secondly, Al-Mandhari underlined, vaccines are still not being distributed fairly and equitably, giving COVID-19 an opportunity to continue spreading and mutating.”
“We are working hard to make sure that all countries in our Region and beyond have access to enough vaccines so that they can protect their most vulnerable populations,” Al-Mandhari emphasized.
He further added that “More than 500 million doses are still needed to vaccinate at least 40% of the population of every country in the Eastern Mediterranean Region by the end of the year.”
He explained that “We are far, far behind from reaching this goal. For this reason, all countries need to monitor the vaccine rollout and share their experiences, so that we can take action to address challenges related to vaccine supply and vaccine hesitancy.”
He added: “The situation is even more critical in a number of countries facing humanitarian emergencies, where people are already living under extremely challenges conditions, and yet need to be protected as equally as anyone else.”
Source: Jordan News Agency