Vaccines ‘outpaced by variants’, WHO warns, as Delta now in 98 countries

Proposals to extend Covid jabs to children in west would delay worldwide rollout, say experts, and allow deadly variants to develop elsewhere

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Rich nations are sharing vaccines with low-income countries too slowly to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of Covid, risking millions of lives, the head of the World Health Organization has warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said the sharing of vaccines was only a trickle, which is being outpaced by variants", after it emerged that the Delta variant is now present in at least 98 countries.