The United Nations said Tuesday (18/6) that vaccination in children in general has increased again since the decline that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the UN warns that the same progress has not been made in many smaller and poorer countries.
The United Nations says 20.5 million children will miss one or more routine vaccinations by 2022, an improvement on the 24.4 million the previous year. In 2019, before the pandemic swept across the globe, that figure was recorded at 18.4 million.
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the overall figures “encouraging,” but global and regional figures “overshadow severe and persistent inequalities.”
“When countries and regions fall behind, it is the children who pay the price,” he said.
The United Nations says 73 countries have experienced substantial declines in their child vaccination rates during the pandemic, and 34 of these have experienced no improvement or gotten worse.
Measles vaccination rates follow larger global trends, with 83 percent of children receiving their first vaccination during their first year of life in 2022, improving from the 81 percent rate in 2021 but falling short of the 86 percent achieved before the pandemic. [uh/ab]
2023-07-18 13:28:48
#Vaccination #Rates #Children #Increase #Prepandemic #Levels #English #VOA #Indonesia
