COVAX delivers its 1 billionth COVID-19 vaccine dose

Roselyne Sachiti
Features Editor
COVAX last week delivered the 1 billionth Covid-19 vaccine dose.

 

In a statement, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a shipment of 1.1 million Covid-19 vaccines to Rwanda last Saturday included the billionth dose supplied via COVAX.

 

COVAX aims to accelerate the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.

 

COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and WHO, with UNICEF as a key delivery partner and PAHO as the procurement agent in the Americas.

 

 

WHO said together with their partners, COVAX is leading the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, with deliveries to 144 countries to date.

 

WHO points out that however, the work that has gone into this milestone is only a reminder of the work that remains.

 

As of January 13 this year, out of 194 Member States, 36 WHO Member States have vaccinated less than 10 percent of their population, and 88 less than 40 percent.

 

In October 2021, Zimbabwe had received 943,200 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the global COVAX Facility to complement ongoing national vaccine deployment.

 

The vaccines were received in tranches where the first batch arrived on September 29 and the second batch today, October 1 2021.

Zimbabwe launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on February 22 last year, targeting health workers and essential services providers. With the availability of more doses, the vaccination was opened to everyone and is provided on a voluntary basis and free of charge.

 

WHO further said COVAX’s ambition was compromised by hoarding/stockpiling in rich countries, catastrophic outbreaks leading to borders and supply being locked.

“And a lack of sharing of licenses, technology and know how by pharmaceutical companies meant manufacturing capacity went unused.

 

“COVAX is working with governments, manufacturers and partners to ensure that when countries receive vaccines they can get them to people quickly,” the statement further said.

 

WHO further noted that with updated vaccines in the pipeline, now is the moment for all citizens to demand that governments and pharmaceutical companies share health tools globally and bring an end to the death and destruction cycles of the Covid-19 pandemic, limit new variants and drive a global economic recovery.

 

COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

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