New Delhi (NVI): Nobody should panic about getting access to a Covid-19 vaccine because everyone who wants one will get one, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
The WHO’s assistant director-general, Mariangela Simao, said the UN health agency was working towards ensuring access to coronavirus jabs all around the world.
“No one needs to panic, because you’re going to get a vaccine,” said Simao, the assistant DG for access to medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
“We’ve been working very hard to ensure that all countries, all populations, do have the opportunity to access these vaccines,” she told a WHO social media live event.
Simao said that around 50 countries have started vaccination campaigns, with more than 40 of them being high-income states.
Reportedly, WHO co-led Covax facility, a globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort, has struck agreements with five manufacturers for two billion vaccine doses.
It aims to secure vaccines for 20 per cent of the population in each participating country by the end of the year, with funding covered for the 92 lower- and lower-middle income economies involved.
“We are expecting to have the first doses reaching countries end of February,” Simao said.
So far, more than 96.8 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across the globe with more than 2,074,618 fatalities being reported till date, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
-CHK
