GENEVA: Rich countries are opening up societies and vaccinating young people who are not at great risk from COVID-19, while the poorest countries cruelly lack doses, the World Health Organization said on Friday (Jun 25), condemning a global failure.

The situation in Africa, where new infections and deaths jumped by nearly 40 per cent last week compared to the previous week, is "so dangerous" as the Delta variant spreads globally, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.