UNICEF Reports: COVAX Global Rollout of Covid-19 Vaccines

In what promises to be one of the best news of 2021 so far, COVAX announced the historic first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines to West Africa. On February 24th, Ghana was the recipient of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed to Serum Institute of India. It was followed by the arrival of 504, 000 doses in Côte d’Ivoire two days later. The deliveries mark the start of what will be the largest, most rapid and complex global rollout of vaccines in history. In total, COVAX aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021, including at least 1.3 billion to the 92 economies eligible for support through the COVAX AMC.     Over 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses had been delivered to 12 countries in a week, including the deliveries of 340,000 doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in Rwanda; 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to the Philippines; and the over 800,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Sudan, which has become the first country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to receive vaccines against COVID-19 from the COVAX facility yesterday.      COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), working in partnership with UNICEF as well as the World Bank, civil society organizations, manufacturers, and others.    Read more