Dhaka, July 15 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF on Wednesday warned of an alarming decline in the number of children receiving life-saving vaccines around the world amid coronavirus pandemic and called for immediate efforts to this end.

The UN organisations said this drop is due to disruptions in the delivery and uptake of immunisation services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to new data by WHO and UNICEF, these disruptions threaten to reverse hard-won progress to reach more children and adolescents with a wider range of vaccines, which has already been hampered by a decade of stalling coverage.

The latest data on vaccine coverage estimates from WHO and UNICEF for 2019 shows that improvements such as the exp...