Delivery of COVID-19 vaccine to poor countries to start in early 2021: WHO

GENEVA – The World Health Organization and its partners said Friday that the Covax facility, created to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world, is expected to begin administering injections early next year.

The UN health agency, the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced that they had now secured nearly two billion doses of various candidate vaccines still in development on behalf of the 190 countries. participating in Covax.

“The agreements announced today will allow all participating economies to have access to the doses in the first half of 2021, with the first deliveries expected to begin in the first quarter of 2021,” the statement said.

However, they emphasized that deliveries were still “subject to regulatory approvals and the preparation of countries for delivery.”

The vaccine developers who have committed hundreds of millions of doses each so far are: AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novovax, and Sanofi / GSK. None of these have so far received authorization for use.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the news, telling a virtual press conference that “the light at the end of the tunnel has gotten a little brighter.”

CEPI director Richard Hatchett agreed and said massive research and development efforts were paying off.

“We now have safe and effective vaccines that can protect against COVID-19 and a clear path to ensure two billion doses for the populations most at risk around the world,” he said.

Gavi boss Seth Berkley, meanwhile, celebrated the “unprecedented speed and scale” of the project.

“Ensuring access to doses of a new vaccine for high- and low-income countries around the same time and during a pandemic is a feat the world has never accomplished before,” he said.

Download the EWN app on your iOS or Android device.