“The development of safe and effective vaccines is one thing. Producing them in adequate quantities and reaching everyone who needs them is another,” WHO Regional Director Dr. Takeshi Kasai told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

While some countries that have independent vaccine purchase agreements might start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, others could see vaccination begin in the middle or late 2021, said Dr. Socorro Escalante, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies.

As many as 41,893,773 patients — who tested positive for the novel coronavirus — have recovered from the disease worldwide, as reported by the live dashboard according to which, India continues to hold the top spot with regard to COVID-19 recoveries as it reported over 9,456,449 recoveries across the country.

The United States continues to be the worst-affected country in the world with regard to most cases and most deaths from the virus in the world. Currently, the US caseload stands at 16,914,853 and the death toll stands at 307,064.

The report titled, ‘Global progress report on WASH in health care facilities: fundamentals first’, comes as the ongoing pandemic is exposing key vulnerabilities within health systems, including inadequate infection prevention and control, reports Xinhua news agency.
Worldwide, one in four healthcare facilities has no water services, one in three does not have access to hand hygiene where care is provided, one in 10 has no sanitation services, and one in three does not segregate waste safely.

Employment in Asia-Pacific showed a 4.2% decline compared with the pre-crisis trend, with the gap at 4.6% for women and 4% for men, the ILO said in a report. Young people have been especially affected by working-hour and job losses, the ILO said, with the youth share of employment losses three to 18 times higher than their share of total employment.