TLTP
\nUNITED NATIONS
\nThe equitable coronavirus vaccine delivery initiative COVAX is a credit to international solidarity, but potential obstacles must be overcome if a fully global rollout is to be achieved, said UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the distribution of vaccines \u201chas not been as equitable as we would have liked, but it has certainly been more equitable than it would have been otherwise\u201d.
\nThe COVAX collective planned to deliver 11 million doses this week, Tedros continued, before cautioning that \u201cwe still have many challenges to overcome, including the local production barriers relating to intellectual property\u201d.
\nThe WHO chief also noted that although vaccines were a powerful weapon against Covid-19, \u201cthey are not the only tool. Countries must continue using all the tools at their disposal including diagnostics, therapeutics and the full range of proven public health measures.\u201d COVAX partners the WHO, GAVI the Vaccine Alliance and CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, aim to deliver just under two billion vaccines to around 190 countries and territories.
\nAlthough as multiple safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines have been developed at \u201crecord pace\u201d, and manufacturing scaled up to produce hundreds of millions of doses, CEPI Chief Executive Officer Dr Richard Hatchett noted that emerging variants risked complicating the task of ending the pandemic. \u201cThis is a moment for celebration and we must remain firmly focused on delivering equitable access if we are to stop the endless cycle of lockdowns\u201d, he insisted.
\n\u201cBut the job is not done when it comes to developing vaccines against COVID-19; in parallel in the global rollout of vaccines, we must now redouble our R&D efforts to tackle the emerging variants of COVID-19,\u201d he further said.
\nUp to the end of May, 237 million doses have been allocated to 142 participant countries in the COVAX scheme, it said in a statement.
\nThese include Afghanistan, which has been allocated 2.6 million vaccines, Algeria (1.9 million), Bangladesh (10.9 million), Brazil (9.1 million), Indonesia (11.7 million) and North Korea (1.7 million).
\nWhen countries can expect to receive their quotas will be made clear at the end of the week, as this is dependent on factors including national regulatory requirements, the availability of supply and other criteria such as whether national deployment and vaccination plans have been approved.
\nIn addition to this first round of allocations, an exceptional distribution of 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was previously announced for delivery by the end of March.
\nIn the coming weeks and months, GAVI chief Seth Berkley said that the COVAX scheme would be hoping to get further funding to purchase even more vaccines for low and middle-income countries, with funding potentially secured for 1.8 billion doses this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP UNITED NATIONS The equitable coronavirus vaccine delivery initiative COVAX is a credit to international solidarity, but potential obstacles must be overcome if a fully global rollout is to be achieved, said UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the distribution of vaccines \u201chas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n