GENEVA: The Covax programme to ensure equitable worldwide access to Covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday published its first distribution list, with enough doses for countries to immunise more than three per cent of their populations by mid-2021. Pakistan is among the top three recipients, the other two being India and Nigeria.
The distribution plan comes with lower-income countries falling behind in the vaccination race — a problem Covax was set up to address. It broke down how the programme’s initial 337.2 million doses will be distributed, with first deliveries expected in late February.
Some 145 countries are set to receive enough doses to immunise 3.3pc of their collective population by mid-2021, Covax said.
A statement said the initial distribution was in line with a target “to protect the most vulnerable groups such as healthcare workers” in the first half of the year.
“Soon we’ll be able to start delivering life-saving vaccines globally — an outcome we know is essential if we’re to have any chance of being able to beat this pandemic,” Gavi chief executive Seth Berkeley told a news conference.
Covax is co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Countries will receive doses in proportion to population size, with the most going to India (97.2 million), Pakistan (17.2m), Nigeria (16m), Indonesia (13.7m), Bangladesh (12.8m) and Brazil (10.6m). Other big recipients are Ethiopia (8.9m), the Democratic Republic of Congo (6.9m), Mexico (6.5m), the Philippines (5.6m) and Egypt (5.1m).
WHO immunisation programme coordinator Ann Lindstrand said priority was given to the countries that had not started vaccinating, while health worker deaths in January were also factored in. For the 92 lower- and lower-middle income economies involved in Covax, funding is covered through donations, while for richer countries, buying into bulk purchases operates like a backup insurance policy for their own vaccination programmes.
The first wave distribution list includes 240m doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, licensed to the Serum Institute of India; 96m advance-purchased AstraZeneca-Oxford doses; and 1.2m doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Both vaccines require two injected doses.
Pfizer-BioNTech is the only vaccine to have received emergency use approval from the WHO. Evaluation is under way for AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.
18 countries getting Pfizer vaccine
The Pfizer-BioNTech doses — requiring special ultra-cold storage — are destined for 18 countries by the end of March, with Colombia, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea and Ukraine getting the most at 117,000 doses each.
The other scheduled recipients are Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Georgia, Maldives, Moldova, Mongolia, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda and Tunisia.
The first round list, including both vaccine types, is subject to change but should allow countries to plan ahead.
Some wealthy self-financing countries were on the list, including South Korea (2.6m doses), Canada (1.9m) and New Zealand (250,000). Tuvalu is set to receive the smallest number of doses at 4,800, followed by Nauru and Monaco with 7,200 each.
Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2021
