Coronavirus: WHO urges countries to donate 10 million vaccine doses as supplies tighten
- India, a key supplier to the agency’s Covax vaccine-sharing scheme, says it is prioritising local needs amid rising infections
- Covax has delivered 32 million vaccine doses to 61 countries, but 36 nations still have not received supplies
The World Health Organization urged countries on Friday to donate Covid-19 vaccine doses to inoculate the most vulnerable in 20 poorer nations after India, a key supplier to the agency’s Covax Facility vaccine-sharing programme, said it was prioritising local needs.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the Covax programme, run with the Gavi vaccine alliance, needed 10 million doses immediately to inoculate health care workers and older people as a stopgap measure.
“Covax is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have. Bilateral deals, export bans, vaccine nationalism and vaccine diplomacy have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros told a news conference.
“Ten million doses is not much and it’s not nearly enough,” he said.
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India grapples with second wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths
India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, said on Friday it would make domestic inoculations a priority. The move will hit Covax supplies as some of AstraZeneca’s vaccine is produced by the Serum Institute of India.