Biggest challenge in 2021 is to ensure people in all countries get access to COVID-19 vaccine: WHO
Thiruvananthapuram: The single biggest challenge in 2021 would be ensuring that people in all the countries, both rich and poor, get access to the COVID-19 vaccine, World Health Organisation's Assistant Director General Dr Peter Singer said on Wednesday.
Singer pointed out that WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had observed that the "world is on the brink of a moral catastrophe" as the vaccine distribution had so far been skewed in favour of high income countries.
He commended the role of Kerala and India in checking the spread of COVID-19 in the face of several difficulties and said "what we saw was a test of global solidarity" in 2020.
He said there were clear signs of the pandemic receding as the number of recoveries had far exceeded the number of people still affected.
Also, the vaccination process was gaining momentum.
Overcoming the pandemic was crucial to achieving the other UN goals such as reduction of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, gender inequality and air pollution, besides ensuring availability of clean water and sanitation, he said.
According to a state government release, Singer was addressing a virtual international conference on 'Kerala Health : Making the SDG A Reality', organised by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Kerala government.
Singerexpressed hope that the situation was "quickly correcting now" following the approval of more and more vaccine candidates, including that of AstraZeneca and of Serum Institute of India.
The Special Advisor to the WHO Director General said 2021 would turn out to be the year of "vaccine equity."
WHO was keen on ensuring equity "among countries and within individual countries" so that COVID-19 vaccines were available to all sections of people as this was crucial to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Universal Health Coverage, he said.
Singer acknowledged that all the countries were lagging behind in the matter of SDGs even before the outbreak of Covid-19.
The pandemic had thrown the SDG goals further off-track and it would require a great deal of effort to cover the lost ground and restore and accelerate the momentum on health targets so that the goals could be achieved by 2030 as originally envisaged.
"2022 is hopefully going to be primary healthcare- based recovery, for achieving SDGs," he said.
As for Kerala, he said tackling the high prevalence of hypertension and diabetes was the challenge in meeting social health parameters.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) accounted for most of the deaths across the globe, he pointed out.
Former Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary Sujatha Rao said Universal Health Coverage (UHC) can be achieved only through a system anchored on primary health care (PHC), which requires micro-level planning and deliberate institutional reform.
Rajeev Sadanandan, Former state Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, said the huge prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases in Kerala will be a real burden for the state.
"To tackle it conventional strategies won't work.
It is time the state turned to Artificial Intelligence and digitisation to counter the problem," he said.
The speakers were part of a panel discussion on the inaugural day of the five-day Kerala Health Conference focusing on various aspects of health system development centered on the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Unemployed class 10 passouts in Bengal to get Rs 1,500 allowance from March 7: Mamata
Kolkata (PTI): Ahead of the assembly polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that from Saturday unemployed young job seekers, having passed secondary examination (class 10), will receive Rs 1,500 allowance every month to help them move towards a self-reliant future.
The TMC supremo made this announcement - on the eve of International Women’s Day on March 8 - during her speech at the sit-in against large-scale deletion of names of voters by the Election Commission during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll exercise.
She said young men and women - aged 21–40 years - who have passed the secondary exams - will receive Rs 1,500 per month from March 7. Bannerjee said while the assistance was originally scheduled to begin in April, it will now start immediately.
"In the case of Yuva Sathi, all those who are still studying and are not beneficiaries of any schemes other than scholarships will receive the amount. We had earlier stated that the money would be given on April 1. But since tomorrow is International Women's Day, as a gift, we have changed the payment date from April 1 to today (March 7)," she said.
All those aged between 21 and 40 years, numbering around 1 crore people, have applied for this scheme, she said, pointing out these are people who are not beneficiaries of any other schemes except scholarships.
Claiming that her government has generated employment opportunities to a great extent, Banerjee said, "The unemployment rate in Bengal has decreased by 40 per cent. We have provided skill training to at least 40 lakh people, out of which around 10 lakh are already employed.
"This has also happened because we have linked the websites of industrialists with those who have received skill training through Utkarsha Bangla. If migrant workers are interested, they will also be given opportunities. Recently, I heard that around 10,000 people are being trained in the jute industry, and they will also be absorbed into jobs," she said.
The CM said the state is giving Rs 10,000 to farmers every month.
"Even those with just one cottah of land used to receive Rs 4,000 earlier. Now we have also announced Rs 4,000 for landless farmers," she said.
Banerjee said in Bengal, six economic corridors are being constructed to connect the entire state.
"Apart from that, two power plants of 1,600 megawatts (800 megawatts each) are being built in Salboni. We are also number one in IT. More people are employed here than in Bengaluru. Around 200 new companies have also come here.
"Those who defame the state should know that we are number one in small and medium-scale industries. Around 1.5 crore people work in small-scale industries. Units from across the country have come here. In Bengal's leather hub in Bantala, at least 7.5 lakh people work there. Our self-help group women are doing really well. We have created around 12 lakh self-help groups," she said.
Banerjee said around one lakh people will be employed in the large coal reserve in Deucha Pachami in Birbhum district and for the next 100 years, there will be no power cuts in the state.
Bengal's GSDP is the highest even after "repaying Rs 6 lakh crore of debt and paying interest on it and despite Rs 2 lakh crore of central funds still pending," the CM said.
"From GSDP to revenue generation, we are the highest," she claimed.
