A total of 28 million doses of vaccines against the coronavirus were applied in the world, the vast majority in rich countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Meanwhile, the agency announced Wednesday that it is evaluating the Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm for possible authorization for emergency use.
Of the 46 countries that started vaccination campaigns, 38 are high-income countries, said the organization’s emergency director, Michael Ryan, the AFP agency reported.
“Only one country is low-income,” he said.
“To date, some 28 million doses have been administered. Five different types of vaccines or platforms have been used,” he explained in an online conversation with journalists.
Ryan warned that “there are populations that want and need vaccines, but are not going to receive them unless we distribute them better.”
The new coronavirus has killed more than 1.96 million people since the beginning of the pandemic in China in December 2019, and more than 91.5 million cases were registered, according to a balance made by AFP, which however may be lower than reality due to different methodologies and registration problems in different countries.
The current situation, with strong outbreaks in Europe and the United States, is the consequence “of what happened in previous weeks”, with the Christmas holidays, explained Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO Covid-19 program.
For his part, the director-general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reported that the organization is working with the producers of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for an eventual authorization for emergency use, the ANSA news agency reported.
“I am proud that a WHO team is currently in China working with the producers of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines to assess compliance with international practices prior to eventual classification for emergency use” by the agency of the UN, he maintained.
Tedros confirmed that WHO asked vaccine producers around the world to move quickly to provide the necessary data that will allow WHO to consider their authorization.
