Over 16 crore more people forced into poverty in two years of pandemic: Oxfam - Economic Times

The first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic saw incomes of 99 per cent of humanity fall and over 16 crore people were forced into poverty even as the world's ten richest men saw their fortune more than double to USD 1.5 trillion (over Rs 111 lakh crore) at a rate of USD 1.3 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) a day, a new study showed on Monday.

In its report titled 'Inequality Kills' released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam International further said inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds.

The world's ten richest men saw their fortunes grow at a rate of USD 15,000 per second during the first two years of the pandemic and if these ten men were to lose 99.999 per cent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99 per cent of all the people on this planet.

According to Oxfam, billionaires' wealth has risen more since COVID-19 began than it has in the last 14 years.

The proportion of people with COVID-19 who die from the virus in developing countries is roughly double that in rich countries, according to Oxfam.

"Rich governments must immediately waive intellectual property rules over COVID-19 vaccine technologies to allow more countries to produce safe and effective vaccines to usher in the end of the pandemic," Oxfam said.