Covax to begin vaccine delivery in early 2021
The World Health Organization and partners yesterday said that the Covax facility, created to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, expected to begin delivering jabs early next year, as Moderna's vaccine was set for imminent approval in the US.
The UN health agency, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced they had now secured nearly two billion doses of various vaccine candidates still under development on behalf of the 190 countries taking part in Covax.
"The arrangements announced today will enable all participating economies to have access to doses in the first half of 2021, with first deliveries anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2021," the statement said.
They stressed though that the deliveries remained "contingent upon regulatory approvals and countries' readiness for delivery."
The vaccine developers that have so far committed hundreds of millions of doses each are: AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novovax and Sanofi/GSK. None of these have so far received authorisation for use.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the news, telling a virtual press conference that "the light at the end of the tunnel has grown a little bit brighter."
CEPI chief Richard Hatchett agreed, saying massive research and development efforts were paying off.
Meanwhile, Covid death tolls climbed around the world, with Europe becoming the first region to pass 500,000 fatalities and Brazil notching more than 1,000 deaths in 24 hours.
Europe is battling a winter surge that has placed it at the heart of the pandemic once again, with the disease biting harder in countries like Germany than it did during the first wave in March and April.
Several European countries are returning to lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions as fears grow of an explosion in cases after the Christmas holidays.
Germany, which began a new partial lockdown this week, reported a record 30,000 new infections on Thursday. Denmark, France, Turkey and the Netherlands have all strengthened curbs recently and Bulgaria said on Thursday its restrictions would carry on until the end of January.
The EU is to start inoculations on December 27, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
China and Russia have been using locally developed vaccines.
In the US, where 3,249 new deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours alone, emergency approval of the Moderna vaccine would pave the way for six million doses to potentially start shipping as soon as this weekend.
The Moderna jab is now expected to become the second vaccine allowed in a Western country, after a panel of US experts recommended emergency use approval -- advice that the country's Food and Drug Administration is likely to act on.
The US began rolling out the Pfizer jabs on Monday, hoping to have 20 million people immunised in December.
Senior officials have been pressed into service to convince the public that the vaccines are safe. And the White House said Vice President Mike Pence got the vaccine yesterday in public.
"Building confidence in the vaccine is what brings us here this morning," VP Mike Pence said after being injected at the White House, quipping: "I didn't feel a thing."
Pence, his wife Karen and the lead public health official in the country, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, were all given the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the annex to the White House.
Moderna's vaccine does not require specialized ultra-cold freezers or vast quantities of dry ice, unlike Pfizer's vaccine which needs to be shipped and stored at -70 Celsius (-94 F), making it easier to supply rural and remote areas. Both vaccines were about 95% effective at preventing illness in pivotal clinical trials with no serious safety issues.
Meanwhile, India's government yesterday said it could soon start voluntary inoculation against the Covid-19 disease as it considers emergency use authorization for three vaccine candidates including those from AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Indian company Bharat Biotech has also applied for emergency approval.
The country recorded 22,890 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to near 10 million, with 144,789 deaths. It has the world's second highest number of cases after the United States, though the gap between them is now widening as India is reporting fewer cases since a mid-September peak.
The government says it could take more than one year to administer two doses of vaccines - 28 days apart - to most of India's 1.35 billion people.
"Vaccination for COVID-19 is voluntary. However, it is advisable to receive the complete schedule of Covid-19 vaccine," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a public advisory. It also said that even those who have been infected by the virus should be vaccinated.
In China, government there is planning to vaccinate 50 million people in the high-priority group before the start of the peak Lunar New Year travel season early next year, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
Beijing is planning to distribute 100 million doses of the vaccines made by Chinese firms Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech Ltd , the report said.
The SCMP report said Chinese officials have been asked to complete the first 50 million doses by Jan. 15 and the second by Feb. 5.
The high-priority group includes health workers, police officers, firefighters, customs officers, cargo handlers, transport and logistics workers.
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