GENEVA, Switzerland —
The Covax scheme aimed
at equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines hit a “key milestone” Saturday
when it delivered its one billionth dose, one of its key backers said.
اضافة اعلان
The Covax facility was set up in 2020 by the
World Health Organization, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations to ensure that poorer countries can access the
vaccines needed to battle the pandemic.
“Covax has delivered its first billionth dose of
COVID-19 vaccines to 144 countries & territories across the world,” Gavi
chief executive Seth Berkley tweeted.
“It’s a key milestone in the largest and most rapid
global vaccine rollout in history.”
Berkley said that when the plane carrying the
shipment with the one billionth dose had touched down in Kigali, Rwanda
Saturday evening, “I felt proud but also humbled knowing how far we have to go
to protect everyone and solve vaccine inequity”.
Covax hit the one-billionth mark less than a year
after delivering its first vaccine dose late last February — to Ghana.
All countries have been permitted to order doses
through the mechanism, but lower-income countries have received the jabs free
of charge.
Berkley said in a statement Saturday that he was
“proud that nearly 90 percent of the first billion doses Covax has delivered
have been full-funded doses sent to the low and lower-middle countries”.
Omicron could
‘unravel’ progress
But while reaching that
one-billion milestone is impressive, Covax has fallen far short of its initial
objective of delivering two billion doses by the end of 2021.
That is because
it has been forced to compete with rich countries willing to pay a high price
and hoarding doses.
In a speech on Thursday, WHO chief
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that while more than 9.4 billion vaccine doses had been
administered around the world, more than 85 percent of people in Africa have
yet to receive a single dose.
Health experts warn that allowing COVID to spread
unabated in some places dramatically increases the chance of new, more
dangerous variants emerging.
WHO said late last month that nearly half of its 194
member states had missed its target of vaccinating 40 percent of their
population by the end of 2021.
It has called for a redoubling of efforts to ensure
all countries manage to hit its second target, of vaccinating 70 percent of
their populations, by mid-2022.
But experts warn that the current imbalance risks
deepening further as many countries now rush to roll out additional doses to
respond to the fast-spreading coronavirus variant Omicron.
“We cannot afford to let Omicron and the increased
demand for boosters unravel the progress we’ve made,” Berkley tweeted, urging
the world to “work together to #breakCOVID now”.
“If the world unites to ensure adults in lower-income
countries are immunized at levels achieved in high-income countries,” he said,
“between 940,000 and 1.27 million deaths could be prevented in the next year”.
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