COVID 19 Vaccination coverage in poor countries reaches 50 according to

COVID-19: Vaccination coverage in poor countries reaches 50%, according to Gavi

GENEVA | Half the population of poor countries has now received two doses of the vaccine against COVID-19, the international alliance Gavi said on Thursday, welcoming progress in overcoming inequalities in access to vaccination.

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In the 92 low-income countries that have received donor-funded vaccines, vaccination coverage averages 50%, said the Gavi Alliance, which, along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other institutions, spearheads the international Covax system, which aims to ensure equitable global availability of vaccines and treatments against COVID-19.

The Gavi Alliance and WHO have long lamented the lack of solidarity around access to COVID-19 vaccination.

Although inequalities remain, “low-income countries have made remarkable progress” and reached a “crucial threshold in coverage” of vaccination against COVID-19, the Gavi Alliance said in a press release.

Dramatic progress has been made since early 2022, with only 31% of people in those 92 countries getting their first two doses.

Previously, 34 of those countries had vaccination coverage below 10%, which is now only 10 countries, Gavi said.

The Alliance specifically commended governments for prioritizing vaccination of high-risk health workers, with more than 80% of health workers being vaccinated in most low-income countries.

Derrick Sim, Acting General Manager of the Covax office within Gavi, welcomed “decisive progress”.

But “the pandemic is not over,” he warned. “Cases and deaths continue to rise and new variants pose a threat to all of us.”

Since the first COVID-19 vaccines became available, Covax has shipped more than 1.4 billion doses to low-income countries around the world.

“Vaccination inequality is the greatest moral blunder of our time, and people and countries are paying the price,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this year.