Global Coronavirus Inoculation: Over 200m doses administered

More than 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in at least 107 countries and territories, according to an AFP count based on official sources. 

In total 201,042,149 doses had been given worldwide by 1000 GMT yesterday -- a figure that does not include the latest data from China and Russia, who have stopped making their progress public in recent days.

Some 45 percent of the injections took places in countries belonging to the wealthy G7 club, whose members account for just 10 percent of the global population.

Its seven countries -- the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan -- promised Friday to share doses more fairly with worse-off countries.

G7 leaders plan to more than double their total support to worldwide coronavirus vaccinations, to $7.5 billion, including through the World Health Organization-led Covax scheme.

More broadly, 92 percent of doses worldwide have been given in countries classified by the World Bank as "high-income" or "upper-middle income", accounting for around half of global population.

Among the 29 countries the institution ranks as "low-income", only Guinea and Rwanda have begun vaccinating.

Israel is far ahead of any other country worldwide with almost half its population having received at least one vaccine dose. One in three Israelis has received both doses needed for full protection.

Other countries to have given more than 10 percent of their people at least one dose include Britain (25 percent), Bahrain (16), the US (13), Chile (12), the Seychelles (43) and the Maldives (12).

In absolute figures, the US has injected more people than any other nation, with 59.6 million doses. China had reached 40.5 million by February 9, while Britain is at 17.5 million, India 10.7 million and Israel 7.1 million.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,453,070 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday. At least 110,700,000 cases of coronavirus have been registered.

On Friday, 10,963 new deaths and 413,697 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were United States with 2,471 new deaths, followed by Brazil with 1,308 and Mexico with 857.

In another development, Moscow yesterday announced it had registered its third vaccine against the coronavirus and promised to introduce the jab to the Russian population by March.

Russia was the first country to register a vaccine against Covid-19 in August ahead of clinical trials, and the Sputnik V jab has been authorised in more than two dozen countries around the world.

First greeted with scepticism, the effectiveness of Sputnik V was confirmed by the Lancet medical journal earlier this month. President Vladimir Putin announced in October that the country had registered its second vaccine, EpiVacCorona, which health officials had said would enter mass production this month.

Meanwhile, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal, the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination is 85 percent effective against coronavirus infection between two and four weeks after inoculation.

The survey was carried out on healthcare workers at the largest hospital in Israel.

Separately on Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine can stand warmer temperatures than initially thought, potentially simplifying the jab's complex cold-chain logistics.

The companies said they have asked the US Food and Drug Administration to allow for the vaccine to be stored for up to two weeks at minus 25 to minus 15 degrees Celsius (minus 13 to five degrees Fahrenheit) -- temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers and refrigerators.

Under the existing guidelines, the Pfizer/BioNTech jab needs to be stored at a frigid minus 80 to minus 60 C until five days before use, a delicate process that requires special ultra-cold containers for shipping and dry ice for storage.