New Delhi (NVI): The World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that COVAX, the global initiative to deliver coronavirus vaccines worldwide has delivered 20 million doses to 20 countries in just one week of distribution.
The WHO Chief also said that the initiative will deliver 14.4 million more vaccine doses to a further 31 countries in the coming week.
Taking to Twitter, Tedros said, “COVAX has delivered over 20M COVID19 vaccine doses to 20 countries. In the next week, it will deliver 14.4M doses to a further 31 countries”
“This is encouraging progress, but the volume of doses being distributed through COVAX is still relatively small,” he added.
To deliver on #VaccinEquity, we need to urgently ramp up production through:
-connecting #COVID19 vaccine producers with companies who have excess capacity to fill & finish
-bilateral technology transfers
-coordinated technology transfer
-waiving intellectual property rights— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 5, 2021
The WHO Chief further said that to deliver on Vaccine Equity, we need to urgently ramp up production of COVID-19 vaccine through four approaches, including calling for waiving patent rights for vaccines.
In another tweet, he wrote, “To deliver on VaccinEquity, we need to urgently ramp up production through: – connecting COVID-19 vaccine producers with companies who have excess capacity to fill & finish – bilateral technology transfers – coordinated technology transfer – waiving intellectual property rights.”
Tedros made these statements during a press conference on Friday.
Ghana was the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX. The country received 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
In addition to Ghana and Ivory Coast, Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda also received vaccine doses from COVAX this past week, as per the WHO data.
COVAX is a global vaccine initiative run by a coalition that includes the Vaccine Alliance known as CEPI Gavi and WHO.
It is funded by donations from governments, international institutions and foundations, which aims to fairly distribute 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
-RJV
