Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 2...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 27 to 34.

Two years into the pandemic, vaccine access has refracted pre-existing inequalities. Inter-country gaps remain stark, yet inequities within nations have intensified: school completion among the poorest is reversing; gender disparities are widening amid spikes in gender-based violence; and informal workers absorbed the harshest lockdown losses. Recovery, the text argues, will be paced by the velocity of inoculation: every day, week, and month matters for reaching ambitious coverage targets. If protection is patchy, contagion and volatility travel; unless everyone is safe, no one is.

        By early 2022, low-income countries had received a vanishingly small share of global doses, leaving billions still awaiting a first shot. Coverage in much of Sub-Saharan Africa lagged well below the 70-percent goal, while a handful of states – Cambodia, Viet Nam, Bhutan – surpassed it. Closing the gap requires weekly inoculations in low-income economies to surge manyfold. Yet progress is thwarted by supply bottlenecks and limited absorptive capacity: vaccines must arrive on time, in stable cold chains, and meet the staffing and logistics on the ground.

        Financing remains the rub. Compared with rich economies, poorer countries must raise outsized health outlays relative to expected growth, with vaccine bills straining budgets already tasked with basic services and SDG commitments. Case studies warn of a looming debt spiral as countries shoulder new obligations equal to large shares of poverty-reduction and education needs. For many low-income countries, vaccination costs devour fiscal space that could otherwise fund poverty eradication and schooling. The opportunity cost is concrete: dollars spent on doses cannot simultaneously pay nurses’ salaries or keep students in classrooms.

        Solutions are neither mysterious nor effortless: solidarity, concessional finance, and tailored delivery. Adequate doses are necessary but insufficient; those doses must be converted into vaccinations through micro-planning, last-mile logistics, and trusted national partners such as Gavi. A “hyperlocal” analytics approach can map vulnerability, steer mobile teams, and target neighborhoods where confidence or access is thin. In parallel, an SDG-oriented recovery – governance, social protection, green jobs, digitalization – can help countries exceed pre-pandemic trajectories. Choices made now will determine whether the crisis entrenches divides or closes them.

(Adapted from UNDP – Vaccine Equity, sdgintegration.undp.org/vaccine-equity)

Question 27. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 1 as a consequence of the pandemic?
A. Reversed school completion among the poorest

B. Rising gender disparities accompanied by increased violence

C. Higher vaccine wastage due to poor cold-chain management

D. Earnings losses among informal workers