The World Health Organisation recently revealed that the approximately 40 million Covid 19 vaccine has been distributed via the COVAX Facility. However, the vaccine supplies are still stalled.
African Continent To Receive Covid 19 Vaccines By This Week
Bruce Aylward, the WHO senior advisor to the Director General on Organisational Change recently held a press conference on Monday. He said that as of Monday, a little over 38.7 million Covid 19 vaccines have been distributed to over 40 countries within in African continent. He further said that they will cross the 40 million vaccines doses mark by the end of this week.
ALSO READ: List of people advised against Covaxin vaccine- factsheet by Bharat Biotech
Aylward clarified that half of the vaccines received by the African continents are from the COVAX facility. COVAX is a WHO-led program to distribute Covid 19 vaccines to the middle and low income countries.
WHO COVAX Faces Short Supplies Due To Sudden Surge of Covid 19 Cases in India
Talking about the escalating cases of Covid 19 in some parts of the world, Aylward said the COVAX Facility is facing major difficulties because of the short supply of the vaccine. He said that one of the major producers and the suppliers to COVAX facility is the Serum Institute of India.
He said that the Institute has cut back the supply of AstraZeneca vaccine deliveries because of the high demand in India after the “escalating outbreak in India”.
WHO suggested a solution to ensure proper immunization to administer the second dose of AstraZeneca. They said that the second dose can be given after 12 weeks or even a bit later. However, WHO said that vaccinations against Covid 19 is just one layer of protection from the virus.
ALSO READ: RML Delhi doctors apprehensive ofgetting vaccinated by Covaxin
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Technical Lead for Covid 19 said that there have been a nine percent increase in the transmissions of the pandemic in last week. And it is happening for the seventh consecutive week. There has also been a five percent increase in the number of deaths.
“We are at a critical point of the pandemic right now,” she said.
