COVID-19
World trade primed for strong but uneven recovery after Covid-19 shock: WTO
Prospects for a quick recovery in world trade have improved as merchandise trade expanded more rapidly than expected in the second half of last year.
According to new estimates from the WTO, the volume of world merchandise trade is expected to increase by 8.0 percent in 2021 after having fallen 5.3 percent in 2020, continuing its rebound from the pandemic-induced collapse that bottomed out in the second quarter of last year.
Trade growth should then slow to 4.0 percent in 2022, and the effects of the pandemic will continue to be felt as this pace of expansion would still leave trade below its pre-pandemic trend.
The relatively positive short-term outlook for global trade is marred by regional disparities, continued weakness in services trade, and lagging vaccination timetables, particularly in poor countries. COVID-19 continues to pose the greatest threat to the outlook for trade, as new waves of infection could easily undermine any hoped-for recovery.
"The strong rebound in global trade since the middle of last year has helped soften the blow of the pandemic for people, businesses, and economies," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.
Also read: Okonjo-Iweala becomes first woman, African to lead WTO
"Keeping international markets open will be essential for economies to recover from this crisis and a rapid, global and equitable vaccine roll-out is a prerequisite for the strong and sustained recovery we all need."
"Ramping up production of vaccines will allow businesses and schools to reopen more quickly and help economies get back on their feet. But as long as large numbers of people and countries are excluded from sufficient vaccine access, it will stifle growth, and risk reversing the health and economic recovery worldwide," she said.
The Director-General added that trade through value chains has helped countries access food and essential medical supplies during the crisis.
"Manufacturing vaccines requires inputs from many different countries. One leading COVID-19 vaccine includes 280 components sourced from 19 different countries," she said. "Trade restrictions make it harder to ramp up production. The WTO has helped keep trade flowing during the crisis. Now, the international community must leverage the power of trade to expand access to life-saving vaccines."
Short-term risks to the forecast are firmly on the downside and centred on pandemic-related factors. These include insufficient production and distribution of vaccines, or the emergence of new, vaccine-resistant strains of COVID-19. Over the medium-to-long term, public debt and deficits could also weigh on economic growth and trade, particularly in highly indebted developing countries.
Also read: WTO, WHO chiefs for opening trade to ensure vital medical supplies
The forecast illustrates two alternative scenarios for trade. In the upside scenario, vaccine production and dissemination would accelerate, allowing containment measures to be relaxed sooner. This would be expected to add about 1 percentage point to world GDP growth and about 2.5 percentage points to world merchandise trade volume growth in 2021. Trade would return to its pre-pandemic trend by the fourth quarter of 2021. In the downside scenario, vaccine production does not keep up with demand and/or new variants of the virus emerge against which vaccines are less effective. Such an outcome could shave 1 percentage point off of global GDP growth in 2021 and lower trade growth by nearly 2 percentage points.
For the whole of 2020, merchandise trade was down 5.3 percent. This drop is smaller than the 9.2 percent decline foreseen in the WTO's previous forecast in October 2020. The better than expected performance towards the end of the year can partly be explained by the announcement of new COVID-19 vaccines in November, which contributed to improved business and consumer confidence.
The volume of world merchandise trade plunged 15.0 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020 (revised up from -17.3 percent in October) as countries around the world imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19. Lockdowns were eased in the second half of the year as infection rates came down, allowing goods shipments to surge back to near 2019 levels by the fourth quarter.
The impact of the pandemic on merchandise trade volumes differed across regions in 2020, with most regions recording large declines in both exports and imports. Asia was the sole exception, with export volumes up 0.3 percent and import volumes down a modest 1.3 percent. Regions rich in natural resources saw the largest declines in imports, including Africa (-8.8 percent), South America (-9.3 percent) and the Middle East (-11.3 percent), probably due to reduced export revenues as oil prices fell around 35 percent. In comparison to other regions, the decline in North American imports was relatively small (-6.1 percent).
Also read: WTO, WCO chiefs pledge joint efforts to facilitate trade in essential goods
In 2021, demand for traded goods will be driven by North America (11.4 percent) thanks to large fiscal injections in the United States, which should also stimulate other economies through the trade channel. Europe and South America will both see import growth of around 8 percent, while other regions will register smaller increases.
Much of global import demand will be met by Asia, exports from which are expected to grow by 8.4 percent in 2021. European exports will increase nearly as much (8.3 percent), while shipments from North America will see a smaller rise (7.7 percent). Strong forecasts for export growth in Africa (8.1 percent) and the Middle East (12.4 percent) depend on travel expenditures picking up over the course of the year, which would strengthen demand for oil. Meanwhile, South America will see weaker export growth (3.2 percent), as will the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including certain former and associate Members (4.4 percent).
Tackling Covid-19: Ambassador Miller lauds epidemiologists, public health experts
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl Miller on Wednesday praised the epidemiologists and public health experts who continue to serve as Bangladesh’s frontline of defense to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has taught us many things. One of those things is policy and actions are only as effective as the science and data they are built upon,” he said.
Miller said they can promote mask wearing and social distancing because they know the science and data tells them it works.
“We can promote vaccination because the data from the vaccine trials and post vaccination surveillance tells us the vaccines are safe and effective. None of this is possible without epidemiologists and public health experts,” he said.
The US Ambassador inaugurated the first “Bangladesh Congress on Epidemiology and Public Health” and the two-day conference (Wednesday-Thursday) includes in-person and online sessions sharing experiences and scientific lessons from Bangladesh about COVID-19; establishing a global network of public health experts to apply COVID-19 lessons to prepare for future pandemics and outbreaks; and building support for expanding the number of epidemiologists and public health experts in Bangladesh.
Also read: Will work together with Bangladesh, global partners against Covid-19 pandemic: Miller
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is partnering with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), and the Epidemiology Association of Bangladesh to sponsor this first-ever national conference focused on the vital roles field epidemiology and public health play in saving lives and keeping people healthy from serious diseases in Bangladesh and across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What we know about AstraZeneca blood clot reports
German officials have decided to limit the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in people under 60 after more unusual blood clots were reported in a small number of people who received the shots.
In response, Europe’s drug regulator reiterated Wednesday that “there is no evidence that would support restricting the use of this vaccine in any population,” though an expert said more brain clots were being reported than would be expected, and it continues to investigate.
Earlier in March, more than a dozen countries, including Germany, suspended their use of AstraZeneca over the blood clot issue. Most restarted — some with the kinds of restrictions Germany imposed Tuesday — after the European Medicines Agency said the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks of not inoculating people against COVID-19.
But the seesawing back and forth in some countries on who can take the vaccine has raised concerns that its credibility could be permanently damaged. Here’s a look at what we know — and what we don’t.
WHAT HAPPENED IN GERMANY?
Earlier this week, Germany’s medical regulator released new data showing a rise in reported cases of unusual kinds of blood clots in people who recently got a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In response, Health Minister Jens Spahn and state officials agreed to only give the vaccine to people aged 60 or older, unless they are at high risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19 and have agreed to take the shot.
“It’s about weighing the risk of a side effect that is statistically small, but needs to be taken seriously, and the risk of falling ill with corona,” Spahn said.
Also read: German cities suspend AstraZeneca vaccine use for under-60s
Germany’s medical regulator said its tally of the rare blood clots reported by March 29 had increased to 31. Some 2.7 million doses of AstraZeneca have been administered in Germany so far. Nine of the people died and all but two of the cases involved women, who were aged 20 to 63, the Paul Ehrlich Institute said.
Some clots have also been reported elsewhere, among the tens of millions of people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
WHAT HAVE PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS FOUND?
The EMA’s initial investigation concluded the AstraZeneca shot did not raise the overall risk of blood clots but could not rule out a link to rare clots and recommended a new warning be added to the vaccine’s leaflet. The shot is authorized for people 18 and over.
The EMA is continuing to look closely at two rare types of blood clots, including one that affects the brain, reported in people who got at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and could update its recommendations for the vaccine next week.
On Wednesday, Dr. Peter Arlett of the EMA said that the agency is seeing “more cases of (brain clots) than we would expect to see,” and noted that more younger women have been affected — but it wasn’t clear if that was significant since younger women were also more likely to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe. He did not say how many of these kinds of clots would typically show up in the general population.
Also read: Canada pauses AstraZeneca vaccine for under 55
Emer Cooke, the agency’s executive director, said its experts had not been able to identify specific risk factors for those who might be at higher risk for the rare clots.
The World Health Organization’s expert committee also evaluated available data for the AstraZeneca vaccine and said the shot was safe and effective. On Wednesday, Dr. Kate O’Brien, who heads WHO’s vaccines department, said they were continuing to review the situation.
It’s normal to continue to look for side effects as new vaccines are rolled out since they are typically tested in tens of thousands of people, but some rare problems might only occur once millions receive the shot.
HOW CAN SCIENTISTS FIGURE OUT IF THE VACCINE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RARE BLOOD CLOTS?
“The way to tell if cases are caused by vaccination is to look to see if there is an excess of cases in people who have been vaccinated,” said Dr. Peter English, past chair of the British Medical Association’s Public Health Medicine Committee.
That will take some time. It took about a year, for instance, before scientists were able to conclude that a swine flu vaccine was responsible for some cases of narcolepsy in Europe.
Adam Finn, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Bristol, said there was no compelling evidence yet that the vaccine is to blame for the rare clots.
Also read: AstraZeneca confirms strong vaccine protection after US rift
“The mechanism by which these blood clotting abnormalities come about, and why they affect this very small proportion of individuals, has still not been properly worked out,” he said in a statement.
In a statement, AstraZeneca said it was analyzing the tens of millions of records for people who received its vaccine “to understand whether these very rare cases of blood clots ... occur any more commonly than would be expected naturally population of millions of people.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR COVID-19 VACCINATIONS?
It’s bad news. Health officials worry the repeated suspensions and restrictions for the AstraZeneca vaccine could undermine confidence in a shot that is key to global efforts to stamp out the pandemic since it’s cheaper and easier to store than some others.
In Norway, which recently extended its suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine for three weeks, officials say the confusion is prompting a wave of vaccine hesitancy.
The leader of the Norwegian Association for General Practice, Marte Kvittum Tangen, told broadcaster NRK that resuming the vaccination with AstraZeneca “will be very difficult if we want the greatest possible vaccination coverage in the population in the long run.”
Finn, of the University of Bristol, said the biggest health threat to the world is currently COVID-19 and that any doubts about the effectiveness of authorized coronavirus vaccines is problematic.
“We need to stay focused on the need to prevent (COVID-19) taking millions more human lives before it is brought under control, and the only effective way to do that is through vaccination,” he said.
No motorcycle ride-sharing from Thursday
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has imposed a ban on operating app-based motorcycle ride-sharing services amid a recent surge in Covid-19 infections and fatalities. The ban will be effective for two weeks until further notice, it said.
BRTA issued a circular in this connection on Wednesday (March 31, 2021) and sent the directives to the service providers.
Also, the government on Wednesday raised the fares of all buses across the country by 60% as no public transport would be allowed to carry more than 50% of their capacity.
Also read: Bangladesh reports record number of 5,358 new daily Covid cases; 52 deaths
The Prime Minister's Office on Monday issued an 18-point directive for the next two weeks to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Bangladesh.
The ministry proposed partial lockdowns for some places with higher Covid-19 transmission rate, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on the same day.
Bangladesh recorded 52 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours until Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in seven months.
Also read: Best Ride Sharing Apps in Bangladesh
Besides, the country's health authorities recorded over 5,000 fresh cases for the third straight day.
The latest figures showed 5,358 new cases in the past 24 hours, which pushed the caseload to 611,295, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.
This is the highest daily infection since the pandemic began.
Read How to Use Ridesharing Vehicles Safely during COVID19 Pandemic
Covid-19 Second Wave: Maleque seeks further steps against transmission
Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said that Dhaka North City Corporation kitchen market in Mohakhali will be turned into a makeshift hospital dedicated for novel coronavirus patients.
“It will have around 50 ICU beds and above 1000 Covid patients can be tretated at the hospital,” said the minister.
Moreover, three specialized public hospitals -National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology, will also open units dedicated for coronavirus patients with 100 beds each.
Also read: Bangladesh reports record number of 5,358 new daily Covid cases; 52 deaths
He came up with this information while talking to the reporters at a a meeting with the owners of private hospitals this evening.
Zahid Maleque reaffirmed that the ministry is doing everything in its power to curb the ‘dramatic’ rise in Covid-19 cases.
“Additional 2500 bed will be increased in the hospitals of the capital to treat Covid-19 patients within a very short time. Moreover, central oxygen line has been provided to 90 hospitals,” he said.
Also read: Don’t be panicked about possible second wave of Covid-19: Minister
The minister also urged people to consider Covid hospitals adjacent to Dhaka city to reduce pressure on the capitals’ hospitals.
“There are similar medical facilities in Gazipur, Manikganj and some other districts around Dhaka. Patients can be admitted to those hospitals,” he said.
The minister said that if the authorities fail to do anything about the source of the massive spread of Covid-19 cases, then it would be impossible to bring the situation under control even if they turn the entire Dhaka city into hospitals.
Also read: Vaccine drive to continue with AstraZeneca shot: Health Secretary
“People are visiting tourist destinations, attending weddings and social events without maintaining any health guidelnes. If this continues, then it will not be possible to curb the spread of Covid-19.”
The minister said the steps taken by the health authorities were effective in restricting Covid-19 in Bangladesh which resulted in lower cases in February. But people became lethargic afterwards, which was the main reason for increase in coronavirus cases.
The minister expressed his concern by saying if the situation goes beond the authorities control, then it would be very difficult to bring life back to normal.
No uncertainty over receiving vaccine doses: Finance Minister
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has ruled out any uncertainty over receiving vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd.
“We’ve already paid for the vaccine. So... we’ll get it,” he told reporters while briefing virtually on the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday.
Also read: Vaccine drive to continue with AstraZeneca shot: Health Secretary
He informed that the second dose of vaccine will be administered in time.
He also said that the health minister had also attended the purchase body meeting and did not express any apprehension over uncertainty about receiving the vaccine doses.
Also read: Virus variants, vaccine inequity responsible for rising Covid caseload: WHO
Mustafa Kamal also turned down the idea of going for lockdown to contain coronavirus transmission. He said there will be no need for any such measures as the vaccination programme has been continuing.
“Once vaccination is completed, the situation will improve,” he said. “The countries, which are running the vaccination programme, are witnessing a fall in infection.”
Also read: Modi to bring 12 lakh more vaccine doses as gift for Bangladesh
Responding to a question on World Bank’s economic growth projection at 3.6 percent, the Finance Minister said the donor agency makes such projection on quarterly basis and the government does it annually.
BBC correspondent leaves China amid safety concerns
A veteran BBC correspondent whose coverage angered China has left the country amid concerns for his safety, the BBC and a journalist organization said.
The BBC said Wednesday that John Sudworth had relocated to Taiwan and would continue to be the British public broadcaster's China correspondent.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said that Sudworth had left last week “amid concerns for his safety and that of his family.”
The organization said Sudworth’s wife, Yvonne Murray, a correspondent for Irish broadcaster RTE, had left with him.
“John’s work has exposed truths the Chinese authorities did not want the world to know,” the BBC said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The BBC declined further comment.
Sudworth has reported from China for nine years. He won a George Polk Award last year for his reporting on internment camps for Muslims in the Xinjiang region. China says the camps were vocational training centers and denies any abuses.
China has held a series of news conferences to deny reports by the BBC and other foreign media of human rights violations in Xinjiang.
Also read: China bans BBC news broadcasts
The Foreign Correspondents' Club said Sudworth left after months of attacks including videos posted online by state media that used videos of him obtained from Chinese police cameras.
“Over the last few years the pressure and threats from the Chinese authorities as a result of my reporting here have been pretty constant,” Sudworth told BBC radio. “But in recent months they have intensified, the BBC has faced a full-on propaganda attack not just aimed at the organization itself but at me personally, across multiple Communist Party-controlled platforms.”
The Global Times, a state-owned newspaper, reported that Sudworth, “who became infamous in China for his many biased stories distorting China’s Xinjiang policies and COVID-19 responses, has left the Chinese mainland and is now believed to be hiding in Taiwan.”
State media have reported that residents in Xinjiang are preparing to sue BBC over its reports on the region.
Also read: EU calls on China to reverse ban on BBC World News channel
“This is an entirely private action, and has nothing to do with the Chinese government,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Wednesday. “Nor have we heard of any Chinese government department threatening him. If John Sudworth believes that his report is fair and objective, then he should be brave and respond to the lawsuit instead of being afraid.”
Sudworth's departure comes amid a chill in relations between China and Western nations including Britain over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Beijing’s restrictions of political freedoms in Hong Kong.
Pressure on foreign journalists working in China has increased in the past year. China expelled 18 journalists working for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post in 2020. Most were in response to U.S. moves to force Chinese state media to reduce their staff in America.
Cluster admission tests: Application process begins April 1
The application process for cluster admission tests at 20 universities for the 2020-21 academic year begins on April 1.
It will continue until April 15, according to a notification signed by Jagannath University Registrar and member secretary of the integrated admission committee engineer Md Ohiduzzaman on Wednesday.
Students who meet the minimum qualifications will be allowed to apply.
Read Now, UGC proposes cluster admission test
Those who have passed HSC/Alim and equivalent examinations in 2019 or 2020 can apply. Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 8 for studying Science subjects, a minimum GPA of 7.5 for Commerce and a minimum GPA of 7 for Humanities.
However, the aspirants must also have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in both SSC and HSC examinations.
Also read: Cluster admission tests: Applications from April 1-15; tests from June 19
Only for this year, students who have passed HSC in 2019 and 2020 will be able to participate in the admission test because of the Coronavirus outbreak. From next year, students will only be allowed to sit entry tests the same year they pass HSC.
Students won't have to pay any fee for the initial application for the cluster tests.
After initial scrutiny, students who are eligible for admission tests will be informed through SMS on April 23.
Also read: Cluster admission test: DU students against any change
Initially selected students have to file the final application between April 24 and May 20 by depositing Tk 500 through mobile banking services.
Applicants can download the admit cards from June 1 to June 10. Detailed admission test-related information will be published in national dailies and at www.gstadmission.ac.bd.
Entry tests will start at 12pm at respective venues. A student can select five centres. Students who passed in 2019 and got into universities will not be able to choose the educational institutions they are currently studying at as centres for the test.
Read DU admission-seekers demand reinstatement of previous GPA system
Bangladesh reports record number of 5,358 new daily Covid cases; 52 deaths
Bangladesh recorded 52 Coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours till Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in seven months.
Besides, the country’s health authorities recorded over 5,000 fresh cases for the third straight day.
The latest figures showed 5,358 new cases in a 24-hour period until morning, which pushed up the caseload to 611,295, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
This is the highest number of infections in a single day since the pandemic began.
Besides, the coronavirus fatalities reached 9,046 with the new deaths.
Also read:Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Daily death toll, new cases rise
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
The DGHS said the infection rate jumped to 19.90 percent from 18.94 percent on Tuesday while the mortality rate remained static at 1.48 percent.
During the period, 2,219 coronavirus patients recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 542,399.
So far, 4,670,576 samples have been tested, including 26,931 in the last 24 hours, the DGHS said.
Among the deceased, 34 people died in Dhaka division, nine in Chattogram, three each in Rajshahi, Khulna, two in Sylhet and one in Rangpur divisions.
Also read:Covid-19 in Bangladesh: 10 more deaths push up toll to 8,451
So far, 5,152 coronavirus patients died in Dhaka division, 1,640 in Chattogram, 504 in Rajshahi, 582 in Khulna, 273 in Barishal, 320 in Sylhet, 374 in Rangpur and 201 in Mymensingh divisions.
Bangladesh’s GDP to increase by 3.6 % in 2020-2021, WB forecasts
World Bank on Wednesday forecast that Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will increase by 3.6% in 2020-2021 fiscal year, due to better than expected remittance inflows.
The international lending agency said this in its twice-a-year-regional update that released on Wednesday.
It also forecast that the GDP growth will be 5.1% and 6.2% in 2021-22 and 2022-23 FYs respectively.
Earlier in January, 2021 the WB projected that the GDP in 2020-21 and 2021-22 FYs will be 2%, and 1.7% respectively.
Read WB okays $250 million for Bangladesh to respond to COVID-19 pandemic
It said that prospects of an economic rebound in South Asia are firming up as growth is set to increase by 7.2 percent in 2021 and 4.4 percent in 2022, climbing from historic lows in 2020 and putting the region on a path to recovery.
But growth is uneven and economic activity well below pre-COVID-19 estimates, as many businesses need to make up for lost revenue and millions of workers, most of them in the informal sector, still reel from job losses, falling incomes, worsening inequalities, and human capital deficits, says the World Bank in its twice-a-year-regional update, it added.
Also read: WB projects 1.6 pc GDP growth for Bangladesh in 2020-21
The latest South Asia Economic Focus South Asia Vaccinates shows that the region is set to regain its historical growth rate by 2022.
Electricity consumption and mobility data is a clear indication of recovering economic activity.
The outlook for Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan has also been revised upward, supported by better than expected remittance inflows: Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase by 3.6 percent in 2021; Nepal’s GDP is projected to grow by 2.7 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22 and recover to 5.1 percent by 2023; Pakistan’s growth is expected to reach 1.3 percent in 2021, slightly above previous projections.
Read Bangladesh to boost spending in next two fiscals to offset Covid impact.
The improved economic outlook reflects South Asian countries’ efforts to keep their COVID-19 caseload under control and swiftly roll out vaccine campaigns.
Governments’ decisions to transition from widespread lockdowns to more targeted interventions, accommodating monetary policies and fiscal stimuli—through targeted cash transfers and employment compensation programs—have also propped up recovery, the report notes.
“We are encouraged to see clear signs of an economic rebound in South Asia, but the pandemic is not yet under control and the recovery remains fragile, calling for vigilance,” said Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region.
He said that Going forward, South Asian countries need to ramp up their vaccination programs and invest their scarce resources wisely to set a foundation for a more inclusive and resilient future.
Read It's time to change the mindset on taxpaying: Salman F Rahman.
While laying bare South Asia’s deep-seated inequalities and vulnerabilities, the pandemic provides an opportunity to chart a path toward a more equitable and robust recovery.
To that end, the report recommends that governments develop universal social insurance to protect informal workers, increase regional cooperation, and lift customs restrictions on key staples to prevent sudden spikes in food prices.
South Asia, which grapples with high stunting rates among children and accounts for more than half of the world’s student dropouts due to COVID-19, needs to ramp up investments in human capital to help new generations grow up healthy and become productive workers.
Noting that South Asia’s public spending on healthcare is the lowest in the world, the report also suggests that countries further invest in preventive care, finance health research, and scale up their health infrastructure, including for mass and quick production of vaccines.
Read Bangladesh to see 7.5pc growth in FY2021: ADB
“The health and economic benefits from vaccinations greatly exceed the costs involved in purchasing and distributing vaccines for all South Asian countries,” said Hans Timmer, World Bank Chief Economist for the South Asia Region.
He also said that South Asia has stepped up to vaccinate its people, but its healthcare capacity is limited as the region only spends 2% of its GDP on healthcare, lagging any other region.
"The main challenge ahead is to reprioritize limited resources and mobilize more revenue to reach the entire population and achieve full recovery.
Read China's GDP expands 2.3 pct in 2020.