Pacific Island Group Has Highest Vaccination Coverage
The country of Palau in the Pacific Ocean has the highest vaccination rate against the coronavirus of any country in the world.
According to the Red Cross, 99 percent of the population has had two vaccinations from the age of 12, which equates to 16,152 people.
Palau consists of more than five hundred islands and is located almost 1000 kilometres east of the Philippines. It is not the only island group that is in good shape in terms of vaccinations.
Fiji and the Cook Islands also have a high vaccination rate, 96 percent. About as many people live in the Cook Islands as in Palau; almost 900,000 people live in Fiji.
Other countries in the region have lower vaccination rates. For example, in Papua New Guinea, with about 9 million inhabitants, 1 percent of the population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. That’s almost six times as many shots as were taken in Palau.
The Solomon Islands (650,000 inhabitants) and Kiribati (119,000 inhabitants) have less than 10 percent of the population vaccinated.