WHO urges countries to follow US, give vaccine doses to fill gap
Reuters
Jun 4, 2021 18:31 MYT
Jun 4, 2021 18:31 MYT
World Health Organisation (WHO) officials attend the arrival of the first batch of vaccines against the COVID-19 at the Kigali international airport in Kigali, Rwanda. Filepic/REUTERS
GENEVA: A U.S. plan to quickly share COVID-19 vaccine doses with poorer countries is an "important start" but more shots are urgently needed to cover a gap caused by Indian supply disruptions and manufacturing delays, a WHO senior adviser said on Friday.
"We are seeing great commitment, the challenge is bringing those commitments forward so that June, July, August we get vaccines into folks," Bruce Aylward told a U.N. press briefing, referring to a U.S. plan to quickly share 25 million doses.
He estimated that Indian vaccine export disruptions and delays in getting other vaccines online meant that the COVAX sharing scheme had a gap of around 200 million doses.