Surge in India costs Covax 190m committed vax doses

United Nations, May 28: The “terrible” surge of the Coronavirus cases in India has severely impacted COVAX’s vaccine supply in the second quarter of this year to the extent that there will be a shortfall of 190 million doses by the end of June, according to a joint statement by the WHO, UNICEF, GAVI and CEPI.

The joint statement was issued on Thursday by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) CEO Dr Richard Hatchett, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance CEO Dr Seth Berkley, World

Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

“Countries that are advanced in their vaccination programmes are seeing cases of Covid-19 decline, hospitalisations decrease and early signs of some kind of normality resume. However, the global picture is far more concerning,” the statement said.

Giving a call to action to equip COVAX to deliver 2 billion doses in 2021, the statement said, “we are seeing the traumatic effects of the terrible surge of Covid-19 in South Asia — a surge which has also severely impacted vaccine supplies.”

It added that COVAX has proven it works as the global mechanism for equitable access to Covid19 vaccines, having delivered over 70 million doses to 126 countries and economies around the world since February – from remote islands to conflict settings – managing the largest and most complex rollout of vaccines in history. —

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