With Covid-19 vaccines on the horizon, the planet's poorest must not be trampled as countries scramble to get their hands on them, AFP quoted the World Health Organisation as saying on Monday.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the latest batch of promising results from final-phase candidate vaccine trials showed there was light at the end of the “long dark tunnel” of the coronavirus pandemic.

But he said the world had to ensure they were distributed fairly across the globe.

“Every government rightly wants to do everything it can to protect its people,” Tedros told a virtual press conference.

“But there is now a real risk that the poorest and most vulnerable will be trampled in the stampede for vaccines.”