JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, February 17, 2025

A new WHO and World Bank re­port says…

Pandemic health costs pushed half a billion people into poverty

by

1162 days ago
20211213
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted health services globally [File: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted health services globally [File: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGEN­CIES

 

■ The pan­dem­ic dis­rupt­ed health ser­vices glob­al­ly and trig­gered the worst eco­nom­ic cri­sis since the 1930s, the World Bank and WHO say ■

 

(AL JAZEERA) — More than half a bil­lion peo­ple glob­al­ly were pushed in­to ex­treme pover­ty last year as they paid for health costs out of their own pock­ets dur­ing the height of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, ac­cord­ing to the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion and the World Bank.

The pan­dem­ic dis­rupt­ed health ser­vices glob­al­ly and trig­gered the worst eco­nom­ic cri­sis since the 1930s, mak­ing it even more dif­fi­cult for peo­ple to pay for health­care, a joint state­ment from the two or­gan­i­sa­tions said on Sun­day.

“All gov­ern­ments must im­me­di­ate­ly re­sume and ac­cel­er­ate ef­forts to en­sure every one of their cit­i­zens can ac­cess health ser­vices with­out fear of the fi­nan­cial con­se­quences,” WHO Di­rec­tor-Gen­er­al Tedros Ad­hanom Ghe­breye­sus said.

Tedros urged gov­ern­ments to in­crease their fo­cus on health­care sys­tems and stay on course to­wards uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age, which the WHO de­fines as every­one get­ting ac­cess to health ser­vices they need with­out fi­nan­cial hard­ship.

Health­care is a sig­nif­i­cant po­lit­i­cal is­sue in the Unit­ed States, one of the few in­dus­tri­alised coun­tries that does not have uni­ver­sal cov­er­age for its cit­i­zens.

Glob­al­ly, the pan­dem­ic made things worse and im­mu­ni­sa­tion cov­er­age dropped for the first time in 10 years, with deaths from tu­ber­cu­lo­sis and malar­ia in­creas­ing.

“With­in a con­strained fis­cal space, gov­ern­ments will have to make tough choic­es to pro­tect and in­crease health bud­gets,” Juan Pablo Uribe, glob­al di­rec­tor for health, nu­tri­tion and pop­u­la­tion at World Bank, said.

 

Out of the mid­dle class

 

Ac­cord­ing to a Pew Re­search Cen­ter study pub­lished in March, the pan­dem­ic has dri­ven 32 mil­lion In­di­ans out of the mid­dle class, de­fined as those earn­ing $10 to $20 a day.

It es­ti­mat­ed the cri­sis has in­creased the num­ber of In­dia’s poor – those with in­comes of $2 or less a day – by 75 mil­lion.

Mean­while, a new re­port pub­lished on Thurs­day by the Unit­ed Na­tions Chil­dren’s agency (UNICEF) said that 100 mil­lion ad­di­tion­al chil­dren were es­ti­mat­ed to now be liv­ing in mul­ti­di­men­sion­al pover­ty be­cause of the pan­dem­ic, a 10-per­cent in­crease since 2019.

Hen­ri­et­ta Fore, the UNICEF’s ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor, said the wide­spread im­pact of COVID-19 con­tin­ues to deep­en, in­creas­ing pover­ty, en­trench­ing in­equal­i­ty and threat­en­ing the rights of chil­dren.

“While the num­ber of chil­dren who are hun­gry, out of school, abused, liv­ing in pover­ty or forced in­to mar­riage is go­ing up, the num­ber of chil­dren with ac­cess to health care, vac­cines, suf­fi­cient food and es­sen­tial ser­vices is go­ing down. In a year in which we should be look­ing for­ward, we are go­ing back­ward,” she said. 

COVID-19HealthWorld Bankpoverty


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored