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‘Boosters may prolong Covid’

AFP . London
26 Dec 2021 00:00:00 | Update: 26 Dec 2021 01:37:32
‘Boosters may prolong Covid’

The WHO warned Wednesday that rich countries cannot use boosters to escape the coronavirus and France became one of the first nations to vaccinate children over five, as nations scrambled to contain Omicron surges.

China meanwhile cracked down on the latest outbreak of the virus, shutting down a whole city. And Britain, which reported a record 106,000 new cases in 24 hours, approved Pfizer’s jab for children aged five and up, as US health regulators authorised the company’s Covid pill for high-risk patients over 12.

“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” said the World Health Organization’s Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Wednesday.

“Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate.”

Nor should a third dose of vaccine be seen as carte blanche, he added. “Boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to go ahead with planned celebrations”.

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