A drop in vaccination coverage affecting 25 million children worldwide can be traced to ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, says the United Nations.
Around 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations that protect against life-threatening diseases last year, as the knock-on effects of the pandemic continued to disrupt health care globally.The figures reveal a "child health crisis", says UNICEF
The focus on COVID-19 immunisation in 2021, economic slowdown and the strain on healthcare systems all hindered routine vaccines That is 2 million more children than in 2020, when COVID-19 caused lockdowns around the world, and 6 million more than pre-pandemic in 2019, according to new figures released by UNICEF and the World Health Organization .
UNICEF described the drop in vaccination coverage as the largest sustained backslide in childhood vaccination in a generation, taking coverage rates back to levels not seen since the early 2000s. Many had hoped that 2021 would see some ground recovered after the first year of the pandemic, but the situation actually worsened, raising questions over catch-up efforts.
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