Covid-19 leading to increase in poverty rates globally: UNICEF

Oman Friday 12/March/2021 12:07 PM
By: Times News Service
Covid-19 leading to increase in poverty rates globally: UNICEF
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Muscat: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned of increasing poverty rates and school closures across the world as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The organisation said that the pandemic has caused an increase in poverty rates in developing countries by 15 per cent, while the rate of malnutrition has risen to 14 per cent. UNICEF added that a third of the children around the world do not have access to education via the Internet and added that unfair access to vaccines will delay the global recovery from the health and economic crisis caused by the precautionary measures for dealing with the virus until after 2022.

This came within the discussions of the World Summit of Governments in Dubai, and the Special Envoy of the World Health Organisation (WHO) explained that the current numbers of vaccine supplies is not sufficient, explaining that some countries sought to acquire all vaccine supplies at the expense of the least capable countries, and that this approach will not be effective in dealing with the crisis.