The WHO said it has secured nearly 2 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine

COVAX initiative aims to secure shots for poorer countries

GENEVA — The World Health Organization program to help get COVID-19 vaccines to all countries in need has access to nearly 2 billion doses of “promising” vaccine candidates, officials said Friday.

The agreements do not include the vaccines by Moderna, which was approved for use in the U.S. on Friday, or Pfizer-biontech, which is already in use in the U.S., Canada and Britain and nearing approval in the European Union.

The initiative WHO is co-leading, known as COVAX, also has yet to receive firm pledges and a timeline from rich countries to share the vaccines they have secured for themselves.

Of the approximately 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines the pharmaceutical industry is expected to produce next year, about 9 billion shots have already been reserved by rich countries. Canada is leading the pack, with around 10 doses reserved per Canadian, according to the science analytics company Airfinity.

WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agreements mean that some 190 countries and economies taking part in the COVAX initiative will have access to vaccines “during the first half of next year.”

“This is fantastic news and a milestone in global health,” Tedros, an Ethiopian who goes by his first name, said at a media briefing also attended by COVAX and pharmaceutical industry leaders.

WHO and its partners in COVAX, the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, were “working nonstop to start vaccination early next year,” he said, stressing that vaccines would not replace but complement techniques already proven to help stem the spread of the virus.

The U.n.-backed COVAX program needs $6.8 billion more to secure vaccine contracts and ensure delivery of allocated doses. U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said it is in world’s best interests to ensure broad immunization because “nature always strikes back.”

“If we don’t eradicate the disease, a virus can mutate,” Guterres said. “And vaccines that at a certain moment are effective can no longer be effective if things change.”

COVAX’S vaccine dose arrangements include pharmaceutical makers British-swedish Astrazeneca, U.s.-based Johnson & Johnson and the Serum Institute of India, though talks with others are ongoing. In other developments:

■ Slovakia’s Prime Minister Igor Matovic has tested positive for the coronavirus. The announcement Friday came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron tested positive. Both leaders attended an EU summit in Brussels last week.

■ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will be getting 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in January. Trudeau expects 125,000 doses of the vaccine next week and 249,500 this month.

■ Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Friday announced there will be a partial lockdown nationwide for most of the Christmas holiday season.

■ The Swiss government is ordering the closure of restaurants, bars, cultural venues and sports facilities next week because of increasing coronavirus cases. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Switzerland has risen over the past two weeks from 43 cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 3 to 50 on Thursday.