Ghebreyesus was echoed by John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), who described the vaccine rollout on the continent as a “ total disappointment“.
Vaccination coverage in Africa was just 2 percent, he said. Noting that more than 5 billion vaccines had been administered worldwide, he said almost 75 percent of those doses had been administered in just 10 countries. On Sunday, the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a meeting of the G20 health ministers that the global inequity of vaccines was “unacceptable”. However, the wealthy countries’ deals with vaccine manufacturers have limited the vaccines available to COVAX and led to vaccine hoarding. COVAX, the UN-backed global vaccine-sharing scheme, had initially aimed to provide two billion vaccine doses to people in 190 countries this year – including 92 lower-income countries – ensuring at least 20 percent of populations are vaccinated. Vaccine inequality has been denounced by many prominent health figures and officials.
The full report, which focuses on the available supply of vaccines in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Japan, will be published on September 7. By the end of the year, these countries will have a potential of 1.2 billion surplus vaccine shots, with the overwhelming majority – 1.06 billion – not marked for donations, it said. Vaccine stock in Western countries has reached 500 million doses this month, with 360 million not earmarked for donations, according to new research by data analytics firm Airfinity. Wealthy countries could potentially have a surplus of more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses available by the end of the year that are not designated as donations to poorer nations, according to a new analysis