India Among 5 WTO Member Nations To Produce 75% Of World's COVID Vaccines

India is among the five World Trade Organisation's (WTO) members to have produced about 75 per cent of this year's vaccines across the world. WTO's Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the five-member states of the organisation alone will account for three-quarters of the entire global output of COVID-19 vaccines this year, ANI reported.

"Production remains highly centralised - about 75 per cent of this year's vaccines appear set to come from five WTO members - China, India, Germany, the United States, and France," the WTO Director-General said at a high-level dialogue on "Expanding COVID-19 vaccine manufacture to promote equitable access."

Developing Nations Lagging Behind

Okonjo-Iweala said discriminatory access to vaccines is a root cause of the unequal recovery of the global economy. She said the developed nations are vaccinating their people at a quick pace while developing and underdeveloped countries are lagging behind.

She said another reason of concern is the lack of full transparency in vaccine supply deals.

"Only 1.4 per cent of doses went to Africans out of the total 1.1 billion doses worldwide in June. The Africans account for 17 per cent of the global population. Only 0.24 per cent went to people in low-income countries. And both shares declined even further in the first half of July," she said.

"Ninety-four doses have been administered for every 100 residents in the developed countries. In Africa, the figure is 4.5 per cent. On the other hand, the percentage is 1.6 in low-income countries. Only 1.5 per cent in Africa are fully vaccinated, compared to 42 per cent of people in developed countries. We cannot accept this for moral, practical, and economic reasons," she added.

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