Covid vaccines running out in poorer nations - WHO
Numerous poorer countries acquiring Covid-19 vaccines through a worldwide sharing scheme don't have enough doses to keep programs, the World Health Organization has said.
WHO senior adviser Dr Bruce Aylward said the Covax program had delivered 90 million doses to 131 countries.
But he said this was nowhere near enough to protect populations from a virus still spreading worldwide.
The shortages come as some nations in Africa visit a third wave of infections.
On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an end to vaccine hoarding by wealthier countries as his government scrambled to curb a steep rise in cases.
On a continental level, only 40 million doses have already been administered up to now in Africa - significantly less than 2% of the populace, Mr Ramaphosa said.
To address this, he said his government was working with Covax to make a regional hub to create more vaccines in South Africa.
Covax was created this past year to make sure Covid-19 doses were offered all over the world, with richer countries subsidizing charges for poorer nations.
Led by the WHO and other international organisations, Covax primarily set a target of providing two billion doses worldwide by the finish of 2021.
The majority of those are being donated to poorer countries, where Covax hopes to distribute enough vaccines to safeguard at least 20% of the populations.
However, the distribution of these vaccines has been hampered by manufacturing delays and offer disruptions, leading to shortages in countries wholly reliant on Covax.
Uganda, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Trinidad and Tobago are just a number of the countries that have reported running out of vaccines in recent days.
At a WHO briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, Dr Aylward acknowledged the extent of those shortages in stark terms.
Of the 80 low-income countries involved with Covax, "at least half of them do not have sufficient vaccines in order to sustain their programmes right now", Dr Aylward said.
"If we look at what we're hearing from countries on a day-to-day basis, well over half of countries have go out of stock and so are calling for additional vaccine. However in reality it's probably much higher," Dr Aylward said.
He said some countries had tried to create alternative arrangements to get rid of shortages, with harsh consequences, such as for example paying above market value for vaccines.
