Carl Bildt: This is no time to ease global response — variant threat is real

Rich countries are becoming complacent while the rest of the world grows increasingly desperate

A woman receives a Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Nearly one-quarter of the global population has been vaccinated. That might sound impressive, but the distribution has been grossly and immorally skewed toward richer countries. File picture

It has now been 18 months since the Sars-CoV-2 virus was first sequenced in China. Within a month, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued its highest possible global alert, declaring the Covid-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Weeks later, the WHO declared a pandemic. Yet, we are nowhere near the end of the crisis. On the contrary, we have entered a dangerous new phase in its evolution.