World Health Organization (WHO) boss Tedros Ghebreyesus has warned against unfair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines saying the system alienates elderly people drawn from poor countries.

Tedros described the trend as a ‘catastrophic moral failure’ as he argued that elderly population from poorer countries should have been inoculated first before thinking of younger people from the affluent countries.

Quoted by BBC, Tedros said 39 million vaccines had been distributed in 49 richer states while only 25 million doses had been given in the low income countries.

“I need to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries,” the WHO boss said in a board executive meeting on January 18, Monday.

According to Tedros, the approach that has been employed by countries producing the vaccine could prove disastrous because it may encourage hoarding and the inflation of prices.

“Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering.”

He then called on countries to roll out Covid-19 vaccine by April to ensure that they contain the pandemic.

He said: “My challenge to all member states is to ensure that by the time World Health Day arrives on the 7 April, Covid-19 vaccines are being administered in every country, as a symbol of hope for overcoming both the pandemic and the inequalities that lie at the root of so many global health challenges.”

China, US, UK, India and Russia have so far developed the vaccine and have rolled out the inoculation targeting their population.

The world has registered 95.6 million Covid-19 cases, 52.7 million recoveries and 2.04 deaths. USA tops the chart with 24 million cases and 399,000 deaths so far.