Covid Vaccination Drive Needs To Be Strengthened Globally: WHO Chief Scientist
NDTV
WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said that discussions are taking place at the global level about having a "pandemic treaty".
WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Monday called for the expansion and strengthening of the COVID-19 vaccination programme across the world in view of the rising cases of Omicron variant.
Speaking virtually at one of the plenary sessions at the PANEX-21, organised at the Armed Forces Medical College here in Maharashtra, Dr Swaminathan said that the scope of vaccination needs to be expanded to ensure that vulnerable people are protected after administering two doses and that chances of deaths and hospitalisation are reduced.
She also said that discussions are taking place at the global level about having a "pandemic treaty".
"With Delta, to some extent, we saw a drop in neutralising activity with regular vaccines. But with Omicron, we saw a further reduction. It means that Omicron can evade our immune responses and infect us but vaccination will still hope to protect against getting severely ill," she said.
