Covid will not respect borders

The United Nations has urged a divided world to unite against a virus that ignores all borders, saying the pandemic could delay by a decade its goal to end global inequalities as vaccine diplomacy threatens global inoculation goal. 

The European Union warned Thursday it would block certain coronavirus vaccine exports, while India yesterday said it had to limit vaccine exports to meet its domestic demands.

A new UN report estimated that the novel coronavirus has unleashed the worst recession in 90 years, threatening to derail its ambitious list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The goals, approved in 2015 with a 15-year deadline, aim to end hunger, gender inequality and violence against women, while expanding access to education and health care in poorer nations.

"What this pandemic has proven beyond all doubt is that we ignore global interdependence at our peril. Disasters do not respect national boundaries," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in a statement.

"A diverging world is a catastrophe for all of us. It is both morally right and in everyone's economic self-interest to help developing countries overcome this crisis."

An estimated 114 million jobs have been lost worldwide, and about 120 million people have sunk back into extreme poverty as the virus circles the globe, the report found.

The UN said the economic devastation has widened "already yawning" inequities, with the chasm between the world's haves and have-nots mirrored in the vaccine rollout.

Of $16 trillion distributed in relief, only 20% was spent in developing countries, the report found, and all but nine of the 38 countries administering vaccines were developed nations.

It called on nations to contribute an estimated $20 billion to vaccinate poorer nations this year, and urged richer members to offer developing nations debt relief, investment - and hope.

It is not the first time the UN has said development goals are at risk in a pandemic that has prioritized short-term survival over long-term aspirations.

But the warning has taken on new urgency as cross-border rows erupt over the fairest way to vaccinate the whole world, with some countries accused of abandoning common cause to safeguard their home front.

British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca could be among the pharmaceutical companies hit first as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned that her bloc would not allow Covid vaccine exports to the UK and other countries until the firms make good on their own promised deliveries.

Von der Leyen released updated figures on how many vaccine doses the bloc has exported -- 77 million to 33 countries since December.  By contrast, 88 million doses will have been delivered in the 27-nation bloc by the end of this week, also since December.

But estimates for the second quarter of this year showed that 360 million doses should be delivered from BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

In contrast to Europe's woes, vaccinations in the United States -- the world's top economy and hardest-hit country in the pandemic -- have been storming ahead, with President Joe Biden raising his goal for shots in arms during his first 100 days in office from 100 to 200 million.

More than half a billion people across the world have had vaccine jabs, according to an AFP tally from official sources.

AstraZeneca shot has been hailed as a breakthrough because it is cheaper and easier to store and transport than other vaccines.

AstraZeneca is also one of the main vaccines used in the Covax project, which supplies poorer countries with jabs, and is facing export delays in India where it is produced by the Serum Institute.

India yesterday defended its decision to limit vaccine exports saying it would make domestic Covid-19 inoculations a priority as infections surge.

India has exported 60.5 million doses, more than the number of inoculations conducted at home, and says there is no outright ban on exports.

India on Friday reported 59,118 new infections, taking its tally to 11.85 million, the world's third largest after the United States and Brazil. The death toll rose by 257 to stand at 160,949.

India has injected 55 million vaccine doses, the third highest figure after the United States and Brazil, although much lower as a proportion of its population of 1.35 billion, the website Our World in Data showed.

The widening gap for vaccine access complicates the world's eventual exit from the pandemic through a global immunisation drive, as third waves sweep through several countries and force governments to reimpose tough anti-virus restrictions, including Germany, Poland, France, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands.

Central and Eastern Europe have been particularly hard-hit, with Ukraine posting a record number of Covid fatalities for the third straight day and Hungary registering the world's highest death rate per 100,000 inhabitants over the last week.

Brazil surpassed 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in one day Thursday, the latest grim record the country has marked as the second-hardest hit country in the world behind the United States -- and just one day after the country hit 300,000 total recorded deaths since the start of the pandemic.

And third-hardest hit country Mexico surpassed 200,000 coronavirus deaths Thursday.

The Philippines yesterday reported 9,838 coronavirus cases, marking the highest daily jump since the pandemic began.

The pandemic has claimed more than 2.7 million lives worldwide, hammered the global economy and left much of humanity under punishing restrictions.