WHO: High Vaccination Rates can Help Reduce Risk of Variants

GENEVA (AP) — A top World Health Organization official estimates that COVID-19 vaccination coverage of over 80% is needed to significantly lower the chance that an imported coronavirus case could spawn a cluster or a wider outbreak.

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Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, said "high levels of vaccination coverage are the way out of this pandemic.”

Many rich countries have been scrambling to vaccinate teenagers and children, who have a lower risk of more dangerous cases of COVID-19 than the elderly or people with comorbidities.

Those same countries have face pressure to share vaccines with poorer ones that lack them.