Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

COVAX Announces New Milestone in Vaccine Distribution to Poor Nations


Sun 16 Jan 2022 | 09:44 AM
Rana Atef

COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) announced a new milestone in vaccine distribution to poor nations as the scheme supplied needy countries with more than one billion vaccine doses, DW reported on Sunday.

The total number of countries that were aided by COVAX reached 144 countries, in addition, 40% of the world's population received at least one vaccine shot.

Gavi Chief Executive Seth Berkly tweeted: "COVAX has delivered its first billionth dose of Covid-19 vaccines to 144 countries & territories across the world."

Berkly added: "It's a key milestone in the largest and most rapid global vaccine rollout in history."

Founded in 2020, the program targeted an equal and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, and to help in delivering vaccines to poor countries.

It was supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Despite the success of COVAX program, still the majority of poor nations are unvaccinated as only 5% of their populations received vaccined, compared to 67% in richer countries, according to WHO data.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed on Thursday that more than 85% of people in Africa didn't receive a single shot.

Last month, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa surpassed 9 million.

It expressed in its latest statement that more than 188 million COVID-19 vaccines were given. on the other hand, the total number of recovered Coronavirus cases is 8,554,189.

Regarding the major spots of COVID-19 reported cases, they are South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Libya.