UNITED NATIONS: Of the two billion Covid-19 vaccine doses distributed globally till now, about 60 per cent have gone to just three countries the US, India and China, a senior adviser at the World Health Organisation said. Senior adviser to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Bruce Aylward made the comments at a press briefing on Friday.
“This week, we will see over two billion doses… we will probably pass the two billion doses… landmark in terms of the number of doses of the vaccines and new vaccines that have actually been developed. These have been distributed now in over 212 countries,” Aylward said.
“If we look at that 2 billion doses, over 75 per cent of it has gone to just 10 countries. And in fact three countries China, the US and India — account for about 60 per cent of those doses,” he said.
He said while Covax has played an important role in distributing the doses to 127 countries and getting several countries to start their vaccination drives, the challenge is in the access to the vaccines.
He said the 60 per cent of the two billion doses that have gone to China, India and the US are “all domestically procured and used”.