The WHO emergency committee urged countries to recognize all vaccines approved by the agency: Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sinopharm, Sinovac, J&J and AstraZeneca.
The COVID-19 pandemic is " far from over ," the World Health Organization's (WHO) emergency committee warned on Tuesday, urging countries to recognize all vaccines approved by the agency .
This committee meets every three months to take stock of the situation .
Following their last meeting last week, he published a statement on Tuesday saying that "although progress has been made thanks to increased use of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, analysis of the current situation and forecasting models indicate that the pandemic is far from over."
"The pandemic is an extraordinary event that continues to harm the health of populations around the world, poses a risk of international spread and disruption of international traffic, and requires a coordinated international response," the group commented.
He urges the recognition of vaccines.
In its recommendations to governments, the committee continues to oppose the principle of vaccine passports for international travel, due to the unequal distribution of immunizations worldwide.
It also calls on States to "recognize vaccines that have received emergency use authorization" from the WHO.
So far, the WHO has approved two messenger RNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech), two Chinese vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac, the one from Johnson & Johnson and several versions of AstraZeneca.