WHO urges caution over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination measures

Mandatory vaccination or imposing a lockdown on people unvaccinated against Covid-19 raises human rights issues and countries should consider those measure "extremely carefully," senior WHO official Mike Ryan said on Tuesday. Austria imposed a lockdown on people unvaccinated against the coronavirus on Monday Europe has again become the epicentre of the pandemic, prompting some countries to consider re-introducing restrictions in the run-up to Christmas and stirring debate over whether vaccines alone are enough to tame COVID-19. "This raises real issues around civil liberties... around human rights and it's something that governments should consider extremely carefully", Ryan, the head of WHO's emergencies programme, told a social media event. Ryan also called on governments to implement those measures only as a last resort and for the shortest possible period of time. "Mandatory vaccination is not the best means to achieve the highest vaccine uptake," he added. WHO technical lead for Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, warned that cases and deaths are increasing for the fourth week in a row globally. "Out of those 3.3 million cases reported in the last week, more 2.1 million were reported in Europe alone. It's an 8% increase over the last week," she said, adding that transmission is higher in countries with low vaccination coverage. For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/8372755/au... Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB #GlobalNews #COVID-19Lockdowns #COVID-19AustriaLockdown