Despite hopes that by now the pandemic would be under control, the head of the UN’s health agency told the G20 leading industrialized nations Health Ministers Meeting in Rome on Sunday that “the opposite is true”.

The global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is progressing at “two alarmingly different speeds”, UN agency leaders said in a statement on Friday, noting that less than two per cent of adults are fully vaccinated in most low-income countries compared to almost 50 per cent in high-‑income nations. 

The remarkable and rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines offers “great hope” that the devastating pandemic can be overcome, the UN chief told the first International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation on Thursday, but everyone must be reached everywhere, “as quickly as possible”. 

After a near-halt of COVID-19 vaccine shipments in Africa, delivers have ramped up in recent months, the UN health agency said on Thursday.