There is reduced supply, but all economies will get doses: WHO

The COVAX vaccine facility expects to deliver COVID19 doses to all participating economies that have requested it in the first half of the year despite reduced supply availability as well as increased demand for the jabs in India according to the World Health Organisation WHOThe COVAX facility which is a global initiative to ensure COVID19 vaccines are available worldwide has now delivered lifesaving vaccines to over 100 economies since making its first international delivery to Ghana on February 24 2021So far more than 38 million doses across six continents supplied by three manufacturers AstraZeneca PfizerBioNTech and the Serum Institute of India SII have been delivered Of the over 100 economies reached 61 are among the 92 lowerincome economies receiving vaccines funded through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment AMCCOVAX aims to supply vaccines to all participating economies that have requested vaccines in the first half of 2021 despite some delays in planned deliveries for March and April a news release from the WHO said on ThursdayldquoDespite reduced supply availability in March and April the result of vaccine manufacturers scaling and optimising their production processes in the early phase of the rollout as well as increased demand for COVID19 vaccines in India COVAX expects to deliver doses to all participating economies that have requested vaccines in the first half of the yearrdquo the release saidAccording to its latest supply forecast COVAX expects to deliver at least two billion doses of vaccines in 2021 In order to reach this goal the COVAX facility will continue to diversify its portfolio further and will announce new agreements with vaccine manufacturers in due course the WHO release addedUK rolls out traffic light system to lift curbsA traffic light system which will categorise countries based on risk alongside the restrictions required for travel has been rolled out by the UK government as part of plans to lift the current restrictions on nonessential overseas travel to control the spread of COVID19 The system which slots countries under a red amber and green system will determine which set of travellers require varying degrees of hotel or home quarantine with a stringent Coronavirus testing regime in placeOz to get extra 20 mn doses of Pfizer jabAustralia said on Friday that it has finalised a deal to buy an extra 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as it rapidly pivots away from its earlier plan to rely mainly on the AstraZeneca vaccine Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced it after saying they would stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged under 50S Korea to extend curbs by 3 weeksSouth Korea on Friday announced its decision to extend the tightened quarantine measures for three more weeks amid a resurgence of new COVID19 cases The ban on any gathering of five or more people will be imposed for the same timeTokyo to be under semiemergencyJapan is set to extend a semistate of emergency over the pandemic to Tokyo and two other prefectures due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus the government said on Friday Tokyo which will host the Olympic Games in less than four months confirmed more than 500 new infections on Thursday415873No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours134125854Total no of cases worldwide2805412Total no of deaths worldwideSource WHOJohns HopkinsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever