The world reached a vaccination milestone Friday of 10 billion doses administered globally, according to Our World in Data, but wealthier countries account for the vast majority of those, while poorer ones have been left behind. Only 9.8% of people in low-income countries have received a first dose, according to the data project, while wealthy countries have had three doses and some are starting to offer a fourth. Researchers at Duke University have estimated that the world needed at least 11 billion doses to fully inoculate 70% of its population of about 7 billion, but vaccine equity has been a challenge from the get-go, despite repeated warnings from the WHO that leaving major areas of the world unvaccinated would allow new variants to emerge that could prove resistant to vaccines. On a global basis, the total tally for COVID-19 cases hiked up above 366.5 million on Friday, and the death toll rose above 5.63 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with a total COVID-19 case count of 73.4 million and death toll of 878,467.
Source: Marketwatch
