Session organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, South Centre, and Human Rights Watch
By late February, over 110 million people were diagnosed with Covid-19 and more than 2 million people have died. New strains of COVID-19, bringing additional waves of lockdown, are delaying economic recovery. Safe and effective vaccines can help halt the pandemic. Everyone, everywhere should have access to such vaccines. Yet, to date, vaccine access has been woefully unequal. In early February, more than 90% of countries rolling out vaccines were high-income; 75 % of the 130 million doses were administered in 10 countries; 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, were yet to receive a single dose. By the end of February, vaccine doses had reached over 100 countries, but more than half of all the doses had gone to just two countries; 80% had gone to 10 countries.
