Covax, a vaccine-sharing organization, said on Wednesday that it expects to be able to distribute Covid vaccines to little more than 20% of individuals in impoverished nations this year, significantly fewer than expected.
Covax admitted that it currently expects to receive only 1.425 billion vaccine doses this year, falling shy of its goal of two billion doses by the end of the year.
According to Covax supporters of the World Health Organization, the Gavi vaccination alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, that milestone will now be met only in the first quarter of 2022. (CEPI).
A total of 1.2 billion doses would go to Covax’s Advance Market Commitment (AMC) program, which aims to provide free access to Covid vaccinations to the world’s 92 poorest countries, with donors footing the cost.
“With the exception of India, this is enough to protect 20% of the population, or 40% of all adults, in all 92 AMC economies,” according to the Covax statement.
The Covax partners have been vocal about the huge disparity in access of Covid-19 vaccinations between rich and poor countries.
“The worldwide picture of COVID-19 vaccination access is unacceptable,” the statement added, noting that only a fifth of people in poor and middle-income countries have gotten their first dose, compared to 80% in wealthier countries.
According to Unicef, which manages the vaccine-sharing facility’s operations, Covax has only provided 243 million vaccine doses to 139 poorer nations thus far.
