BRUSSELS - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on European parliaments to strive for a global COVID-19 vaccination plan to ensure equal access to vaccines around the world.

Addressing the virtual European Semester Conference, the inter-parliamentary conference on economic stability, Guterres said it was "not only unfair but also dangerous" that just ten countries account for 75 percent of global vaccinations to date.

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than 110 million people and claimed nearly 2.5 million lives so far, while also resulting in millions of livelihoods being lost, schools closed, and the global economy thrown into turmoil

Describing this as "unacceptable", the former Portuguese prime minister stressed the need for a global plan.

"I am calling for a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities to ensure that everyone has access to the vaccine," he said.

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"Only then can we defeat COVID-19 and build more resilient economies and societies," he added.

Last week, Guterres proposed that the Group of 20 (G20) set up an emergency task force to prepare a Global Vaccination Plan besides COVAX, a joint international facility to help less wealthy countries to get vaccines.

The European Union (EU) had been squabbling with Britain over vaccine supplies and had threatened export control, only resulting in rising concerns in the rest of the world.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

COVAX

Also on Monday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that deals between some high-income countries and manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines are undermining the WHO-led COVAX initiative by reducing the number of doses it can purchase.

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"It's important to note, however, that money is not the only challenge we face. If there are no vaccines to buy, money is irrelevant," Ghebreyesus said at a WHO press briefing.

Currently, some high-income countries are entering contracts with vaccine manufacturers that undermine the deals that COVAX has in place, and reduce the number of doses COVAX can buy, Tedros said.

"Even if we have the funds, we can only deliver vaccines to poorer countries if high-income countries cooperate in respecting the deals COVAX has done, and the new deals it is doing," he said.

"This is not a matter of charity. It's a matter of epidemiology. Unless we end the pandemic everywhere, we will not end it anywhere," he added.

Tedros called on all countries, including high-income countries, to share vaccine doses immediately, and urged manufacturers to prioritize contracts with COVAX and significantly increase the production of vaccines.

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According to WHO's statistics, the COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than 110 million people and claimed nearly 2.5 million lives so far, while also resulting in millions of livelihoods being lost, schools closed, and the global economy thrown into turmoil.

"It has exposed and exploited the fault lines, inequalities, injustices and contradictions of our world, within and between countries," Tedros said at another meeting on Monday.

The good news is that the number of weekly reported cases has declined for six consecutive weeks, and the number of deaths has also fallen for three straight weeks. Meanwhile, the development and approval of safe and effective vaccines is giving all hope that this pandemic can be brought under control.

As around 200 million doses of vaccine have been administered so far, of which most in the world's richest countries, the WHO chief has been reiterating that vaccine equity is "our highest priority, and we will not stop until we get it."

Seen as the most powerful weapon against the pandemic, vaccination campaigns with authorized COVID-19 vaccines are ongoing in some countries around the world.

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Further 251 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 70 of them in clinical trials -- including in Germany, Italy, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to data released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 19.