Vaccine reaches 100 countries, economies
GENEVA - More than 100 countries and economies have now received COVID-19 vaccines through the UN-partnered equitable coronavirus-busting scheme, COVAX.
The first delivery of lifesaving jabs arrived in Ghana on 24 February.
Announcing the news on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 38 million doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Serum Institute of India-produced shots (one of the AstraZeneca vaccines known as COVISHIELD) have been transported globally so far.
The development comes as WHO and other health regulators reaffirmed the overwhelming value of the AstraZeneca (or AZ) COVID-19 vaccine, amid ongoing concerns about clotting events among a very small number who’ve had the jab.
WHO listed two versions of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, after careful consideration over four weeks of analysis, for emergency use on February 15, to be rolled out globally through COVAX.
In statements on Wednesday, the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, the European Medicines Agency and the UK’s regulator all concluded that the benefits of taking the AZ vaccine “outweigh the very rare potential risks”.
More than 190 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered so far, but only 182 cases of clotting have been reported, WHO said, in its advice to countries to continue to vaccinate with the AZ vaccine, noting that it has “saved millions of lives and prevented serious illness”.
Despite reduced supply availability in March and April – the result of vaccine manufacturers optimising their production processes in the early phase of the rollout, as well as increased demand for COVID-19 vaccines in India – COVAX “expects to deliver doses to all participating economies that have requested vaccines in the first half of the year”, said the press release issued by WHO.