WHO: Herd Immunity to Coronavirus Is Not to Soon Appear

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that herd immunity to coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 infection, is unlikely to appear this year. “Even if vaccines start to protect the most vulnerable groups, we will not achieve any level of population immunity in 2021,” Sumiya Swaminathan, WHO's chief scientist said. "The fact that herd immunity will appear in a number of countries will not yet protect populations around the world," she added. From Europe to America and Asia, the virus has shown resistance despite all sorts of quarantine measures that have been introduced in recent months to contain the disease. As noted in media reports, the vaccination rate must be around 70 or 80 percent for the population to be protected from person-to-person easy virus transmission. In Europe and the USA, where the population began the vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna drugs, the process is still going slowly due to restrictions on the production and medicines supply, combined with the difficulties associated with organizing mass vaccinations. On Monday, Germany's BioNTech announced it expects to release approximately two billion doses of the vaccine in 2021 from new manufacturing facilities. It was said earlier about producing 1 billion 300 million doses. Two billion doses will provide protection for a billion people on the planet - with a two-stage drug administration scheme. The Earth total population is now about 7.6 billion people. Other vaccine manufacturers include China and Russia. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko stated last week that 800 thousand people have already been vaccinated against coronavirus in the country. The Sputnik V drug, developed by the Russian Gamaleya Center are expected to be supplied to a number of countries, including Serbia and Argentina. Speaking on January 11, WHO Chief Scientist Sumiya Swaminathan noted that "incredible progress" has been made in vaccine development. "A year ago, no one could have imagined that we would have not one, but several coronavirus vaccines at once. And they will be delivered to all countries, but we must be patient," the expert said.