WHO requests countries to donate the COVID vaccines to poorer countries
India ; a main supplier to the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme of the agency stated that it gives priority to its domestic inoculations and this decision will affect the COVAX supplies, because some of the vaccines of AstraZeneca are produced by the Serum Institute based in India.
Following the above, the World Health Organization requested countries on March 26 to donate COVID-19 vaccine doses to inoculate the most vulnerable individuals in twenty poorer countries .
The Director- General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the COVAX programme, run with the GAVI vaccine alliance required 10 million doses shortly to inoculate the healthcare workers and older people as a stop-gap measure.
He said “Ten million doses is not much and it’s not nearly enough,”.
He also thanked India for its exports up to date and stated that the move was “understandable” given the surge of infections.
Tedros added that discussions with India were underway to find a balance between domestic and global requirements.
He said that the COVAX has delivered 32 million vaccine doses to 61 countries, nonethless, 36 countries still await vaccines to start inoculations.
Source: Reuters
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