World Health Day, which falls on Wednesday, should be a time where we strive to build a fairer and healthier world. But tragically, we"re far from it.

Global COVID-19 infections rose over the past month. Among the most affected were several countries in Africa. Another hotspot was the Western Pacific, including the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

Meanwhile, the gap in vaccine procurement between richer and poorer countries "is growing every single day," warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO.

Tedros said countries were in a "race against time" to bring down transmission and wealthy nations needed to match their promises of solidarity with action.