At least 3.3 percent of the population in 145 countries will be vaccinated as part of the COVAX initiative in the first half of the year. UN News reports.
According to it, the COVAX Facility participants can view the first interim forecast of distribution of the vaccines against coronavirus published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners in COVAX initiative. It contains information on distribution of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines in the first quarter of this year and AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines in the first half of the year.
The data on distribution of the vaccines in the post-Soviet countries:
- Azerbaijan will get 506,400 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford;
- Armenia — 146,400 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford;
- Georgia — 184,800 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford and 29,250 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech;
- Kyrgyzstan — 504,000 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford;
- Moldova — 156,000 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford and 24,570 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech;
- Tajikistan — 732,000 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford;
- Ukraine — 2,215,200 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford and 117,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech;
- Uzbekistan — 2,640,000 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford.
The vaccines supplies are expected to begin in late February. On average, over three percent of the population in 145 countries will be vaccinated during the first phase of vaccine distribution under the COVAX initiative. According to experts, this will be enough to protect the most vulnerable groups, including health workers.
COVAX is a centralized procurement and distribution initiative for COVID-19 vaccines. Under it, governments and manufacturers work together to provide vaccinations for both wealthy and low-income countries.
Back in January, WHO announced purchase of millions of doses of Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines. The COVAX is expected to deliver two billion doses of these vaccines worldwide by the end of the year, including 1.3 billion — to low-income countries.
