The World Health Organization calls on rich countries and manufacturers to donate doses of COVID-19 vaccines ahead of schedule to deal with delays caused by the slowdown in exports from India.
The COVAX mechanism – the global initiative for the equitable sharing of vaccines – will reach the 65 million doses delivered in the next few days, but it should have been 170 million. Increased domestic demand in India has meant that 140 million doses of AstraZeneca manufactured by the Serum Institute that were to be delivered to COVAX are not exported. Another 50 million doses are likely to be lost in June.
The WHO director said AstraZeneca has been increasing the speed and volume of its deliveries and that they need other manufacturers to do the same. Pfizer has pledged to donate 40 million doses to COVAX “but most of it would be in the second half of 2021.”
“We need doses right now and we ask them to bring forward deliveries as soon as possible ”, urged Dr. Tedros Adganon Gebreyesus.
Negotiations between the WHO and Johnson & Johnson have not finalized, while Moderna “has signed an agreement to donate 500 million doses, but most have promised them by 2022”, when “we urgently need hundreds of millions of doses in 2021 given the delicate moment of the pandemic, “insisted Tedros.
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