COVID-19 vaccination: US, EU back on track, Asia also gains momentum

The United
States and the European Union (EU), who were struggling with the COVID-19 vaccination
process due to various factors, on Friday said that their respective inoculation drive picked up pace
and is back on track.

Celebrating the administration 50 million COVID-19 jab, US President
Joe Biden in January announced that the country is now “weeks ahead of schedule”. He, however, warned the citizens to wear a mask at all times.

As of now, the
US is the world’s hardest COVID-19 hit country, with death toll crossing the 500,000 mark earlier this week.

The EU on the other hand, expressed confidence in meeting the goal of inoculating nearly 70% of its adult population by he end of 2021.

Also Read: UK, South African variant of coronavirus: What experts know so far

Meanwhile in Asia, the process of coronavirus vaccination accelerated with Hong Kong and South Korea kicking off their mass vaccination programs on Friday.

According to AFP, South Korea is planning to inoculate 70% of its total population within seven months while Hong Kong aims to vaccinate all adults by the end of the year.

Notably, both the sites were among the first places to experience outbreaks after the SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus, but have managed to keep the infection rate comparatively low.

What emerged out as a big challenge in the world’s COVID-19 vaccination drive is the movement of drug doses to wealthier countries that left poor and medium countries completely bereft, a case in point being Brazil.

Also Read:British airline giant IAG says it suffered 6.9-billion-euro loss in virus-hit 2020

There was also worrying news Friday out of impoverished Papua New Guinea, which reported its largest daily jump in cases since the pandemic began, with infections spreading to remote regions with poor health infrastructure