The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced that 67 million children globally missed out entirely–or partially on routine immunisation from 2019 to 2021 due to COVID-19.
The organisation made this statement in its “State of the World’s Children 2023’ report.
According to UNICEF, vaccination coverage dropped abruptly during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving a total of million and more children unprotected against some of childhood’s most significant diseases.
In addition to its statement, it cited the pandemic as a disaster for childhood immunisation as it set immunisation back to levels last seen in 2008 in those two years.
It also mentioned that there was a sharp increase in the number of under-vaccinated children, which rose from a total sum of six million to 25 million.
It added that “this backsliding reflected some issues specific to the pandemic, particularly the impact of lockdowns and service disruption.
“However, it also cast a powerful spotlight on longer-term issues, including the weakness of far too many primary health care systems, which has long undermined efforts to vaccinate every child.â€
It identified issues that led to this decline, including strains on overstretched health systems and health workers, especially overworked women health workers, as well as confusing communication to parents.
It stated that “perhaps the most significant factor was the impact of the pandemic on primary health care and health systems.
“As previous crises have shown, countries with already weak health systems are especially vulnerable to the impacts of conflict, major disease outbreaks and natural disasters.
“The COVID-19 pandemic was no exception, as it forced many health systems to divert scarce resources away from providing routine care, including immunisation.â€