GENEVA, October 31. /TASS/. World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the G20 summit in Rome on Saturday that providing equal access to vaccines all over the world was in the interest of every country.

In his remarks at a G20 summit session, headlined Global Economy and Global Health, the WHO chief said a total of 7 billion anti-coronavirus vaccine doses have already been administered worldwide.

"Low-income countries, most of them in Africa, have received just 0.4% of those vaccines; more than 80% have gone to G20 countries," he said.

"We understand and support every government’s responsibility to protect its own people," the official continued. "But vaccine equity is not charity; it’s in every country’s best interests."

He welcomed the G20 support for WHO’s targets to vaccinate 40% of the population of all countries by the end of this year, and 70% by mid-2022. However, he continued, "82 countries are at risk of missing that target."

"For most, the barrier is not absorptive capacity, it’s insufficient supply," he said.

In this regard, he called upon G20 countries to assist vaccine production in Africa and urged countries that have already reached the 40% goal to swap their vaccine delivery schedules with vaccine-sharing mechanism COVAX and the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).

The G20 summit opened in Italy’s capital Rome in the in-person format after a pause of almost two years due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Several leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will address the summit via a video linkup.