India has shown great progress in significantly driving down the number of Covid-19 cases, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in an online news briefing from Geneva on Friday, February 5.

"This shows us that if we can do these simple public health solutions, we can beat the virus...With vaccines being added, we would even expect more and better outcomes," he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief also called on companies to share manufacturing facilities to help ramp up the production of Covid-19 vaccines. He said almost 130 countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion people were yet to administer a single dose of vaccine, and urged rich nations to share doses with poorer countries once they have vaccinated health workers and older people.

"Expanding production globally would also make poor countries less dependent on donations from rich ones. These are unprecedented times and we applaud those manufacturers that have pledged, for example, to sell their vaccines at cost," he said.

Tedros also urged vaccine manufacturers to share their data and technology to ensure global equitable access to vaccines. "And we call on companies to share their dossiers with WHO faster and more fully than they have been doing, so we can review them for emergency use listing," he said.