By AFP
The vaccine-sharing facility COVAX said Wednesday it should be able to provide COVID-19 jabs to no more than 20 percent of people in poorer countries this year, far fewer than anticipated.
“Today, COVAX’s ability to protect the most vulnerable people in the world continues to be hampered by export bans, the prioritization of bilateral deals by manufacturers and countries, ongoing challenges in scaling up production by some key producers, and delays in filing for regulatory approval,” COVAX’s backers, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gavi vaccine alliance, said in a statement.
Most African countries are set to miss the goal of vaccinating the most vulnerable 10 percent of their population by the end of the month, which the WHO blames on “vaccine hoarding,” although experts also attribute public skepticism to the low vaccination rates in Africa.
However, there have been some notable success stories related to the COVAX vaccine program recently, including a donation of 500,000 Moderna doses last month to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza facilitated through Covax.
Still, COVAX is far short of its goal of having 2 billion doses available by the end of 2021, with over 243 million vaccines shipped to 139 participants in the program as of September 7, according the Gavi vaccine alliance.
