On Wednesday, António Guterres- the Security General of the United Nations- delivered his new year message in several languages including Urdu. 

In his statement, he said the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world will be a monumental task of the year. 

The novel coronavirus that has been wreaking havoc on the world for more than a year is still quite widespread in several countries. The viral infection is more rampant than ever in almost every country as the bug continues to mutate.

According to the coronavirus statistics provided by John Hopkins University, the global cases have reached 82,777,305 while the global deaths have exceeded 1,806,155.

Guterres, who has been in the office since 1st January 2017, took to Twitter yesterday and shed light on the importance of the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. He wrote: 

Distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world will be a monumental task, requiring political solidarity & complex logistical planning.

The Portuguese further said:

If we distribute vaccines according to need and not wealth, 2021 could see us start to emerge from the pandemic.

Coronavirus vaccines have been rolled out in first world countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. The vaccination campaigns are in the initial phases in these countries. In the first phase, high-risk groups i.e. elderly people and healthcare providers are being given the vaccines. But the real challenge is the distribution of vaccines in third world countries. It is expected that it will take at least a couple of years before a widespread vaccination campaign can be initiated in the poorer nations.