Humanity will not achieve collective immunization against COVID-19 in 2021, said Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO). She explained that in some countries there will remain unprotected people.

The expert noted that precautionary measures will have to be in place at least until the end of the year, when vaccination of the most at-risk populations is completed. But Swaminathan optimistically stressed that at the beginning of the pandemic it was hard to imagine that several vaccines would appear in the world quickly enough, and urged people to be patient while waiting for vaccinations.

Recall that nearly 89 million cases of COVID-19 infection have already been identified worldwide, and more than 1.9 million people have died. The highest incidence of the coronavirus is observed in the United States, India, and Brazil, the same countries that lead in the number of victims of the disease.