The chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, has called for coordinated action and greater accountability to ensure that the world meets a target of vaccinating 40% of people in every country against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

Gopinath told Reuters in an interview that India's decision this week to resume vaccine exports was "a very important part of the solution," but major economies also had to ratchet up vaccine deliveries to honour their pledges.

According to Gopinath, Group of Seven rich countries had delivered only 14% of the total vaccine doses they had promised, but increasing that to 50% would provide sufficient doses to reach the global target for 2021.

"I think (ending the pandemic) is still a solvable problem and that it can be done, as long as you can get the countries and the vaccine manufacturers to come together and deliver on these targets," she said.

Gopinath also added that it was critical to allocate adequate supplies of vaccines, especially to African countries with big deficits, by year's end, even if some shots did not get into people's arms until early next year.