Geneva, December 5: The World Health Organisation is expecting to receive around 50 Million doses of COVID-19 vaccine via its global initiative, COVAX by the first quarter of 2021. It aims to distribute the vaccines on a global level.“Our goal, our hope is that in the first quarter of 2021 that we would have about half a billion of doses available to be distributed across the countries, in a fair manner,” WHO's Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told at Geneva news conference, as reported by Reuters. Singapore to Contribute $5 Million to Help Other Nations Get COVID-19 Vaccines.

WHO also aims to procure 2 Billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. Under COVAX, it plans to vaccine around 20 per cent of the populations at highest risk, including health workers and people above the age of 65 years. “So countries can start expecting doses toward the end of the first quarter of 2021. A few countries may start earlier, it’s likely, possible, that we may have some learning by going early into a few countries,” added Swaminathan. COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Sanofi, GSK to Supply COVAX with 200 Million Doses of Coronavirus Vaccine.

As of now, 189 countries have joined the WHO's COVAX programme, undertaken to ensure equitable and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccine at a global level. COVAX is co-led by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Recently Singapore contributes $5 Million to the programme.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 05, 2020 01:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).