[ad_1]
LONDON: On Friday (March 5) Britain’s Vaccine Minister dismissed suggestions that the country was receiving key COVID-19 injections destined for the poorest countries, insisting that 10 million doses come from India always they were intended for distribution in the UK.
Nadhim Zahawi, in an interview with The Associated Press, confirmed reports that the Serum Institute of India, one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, would ship doses of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to the UK.
Non-governmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have expressed concern that shipments from the Serum Institute would reduce supplies to developing countries. Zahawi insisted that this was not the case.
“Of course, we seek assurances from AstraZeneca and Serum that our dosages will not affect their commitment to the world’s low- and middle-income countries,” he said.
READ: Comment: UK’s Shockingly Fast COVID-19 Vaccine Launch A Game Changer
“And they are making around 300 million doses available to low- and middle-income countries. You have seen them arrive in Accra in Ghana last week and the Philippines this week… and also in the Ivory Coast. And you’ll see a lot more coming out of that volume as well.
Britain has given at least one dose of the vaccine to some 21 million people, more than 30 percent of the population, and plans to reach all adults by the end of July.
In an effort to quickly vaccinate as many people as possible, public health officials have recommended that most people receive their second dose after 12 weeks, rather than the four weeks originally anticipated.
They say that a single dose offers a high degree of protection, although two doses are needed to reap the full benefits of vaccination.
As more people become eligible for their second dose, the rate at which new patients receive their first injection has slowed.
An average of about 327,000 people per day received their first dose of vaccine in the seven days through February 28, down from the peak of 441,000 three weeks earlier.
READ: UK regulator says it will speed up vaccines for coronavirus variants
Zahawi said the government has built a network of vaccination sites capable of meeting the growing demand and is confident of reaching the July goal for all adults.
“It is a very large deployment infrastructure that we have put in place that can be deployed at much faster speeds than we have experienced to date,” he said.
With the successful implementation of the program, Britain and other rich countries are under pressure to share their supplies with poorer nations through a United Nations-backed mechanism known as the COVAX facility.
Britain has acquired the rights to 457 million doses of various vaccines, more than three times the total needed to fully vaccinate everyone in the country. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to donate unnecessary doses to other countries, but has not offered a timetable.
“Most of it will be offered through COVAX,” Zahawi said. Some may be offered “also through bilateral relations”.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
