Many medics have felt "frustrated, helpless and unprotected, with a lack of access to personal protective equipment and vaccines," he added. Medical workers lost to the pandemic had paid "the ultimate price in the service of others." "They have saved countless lives and fought for others who, despite their best efforts, slipped away," he said. He paid tribute to the estimated 115,000 health and care workers who have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. Speaking alongside Guterres at the World Health Organization's main annual assembly in Geneva, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he wanted 10 percent of every country's population vaccinated by September. Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world fortunate enough to have secured more than enough doses to inoculate its entire population of 7.5 million people.īut swirling distrust of the government as it stamps out dissent – combined with online misinformation and a lack of urgency in the comparatively virus-free city - has led to entrenched vaccine hesitancy and a dismal inoculation drive. However, Hong Kong warned Tuesday it might soon have to throw away coronavirus vaccine doses because they were approaching their expiry date and not enough people have signed up for the jabs.