The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday called for a temporary halt on the booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, citing the disparity in vaccination levels in the developed and low-income countries. The health body said that high-income countries should apply a ‘moratorium’ on the third dose of COVID vaccines at least till the end of September.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the disparity was quite evident between high and low-income nations. While 100 doses for every 100 people have been administered in high-income nations, the number is as low as 1.5 doses for every 100 people in low-income countries. He said this was due to a lack of supply of COVID vaccines.

“We need an urgent reversal, from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries, to the majority going to low-income countries,” Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva.

“Accordingly, WHO is calling for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September, to enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated,” the WHO chief said.

The global body also urged everyone with influence – religious leaders, Olympic athletes, business leaders and others – to support and build awareness on the moratorium for a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

Ghebreyesus said ensuring increased vaccination coverage in low-income countries requires everyone’s cooperation, especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines.

Till now, over four billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered across the globe. Over 80% of these have been in high and upper-middle income nations, which account for less than half of the world’s population.

“And yet even while hundreds of millions of people are still waiting for their first dose, some rich countries are moving towards booster doses,” Ghebreyesus said.

He said that while he understands governments trying to protect its citizens from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, it wasn’t acceptable that countries that had already consumed most of the vaccine stocks were using more, while those in poor nations remain unprotected.