WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) – The COVAX vaccine sharing facility aims to deliver one third of a billion COVID-19 doses by mid-year, Seth Berkley, ceo of the GAVI vaccine alliance said on Friday.
The programme has delivered nearly 38.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 102 countries across six continents, six weeks after it began to roll out supplies, GAVI said in statement on Thursday.
World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, speaking at the same World Bank forum, said that developing countries that export commodities have faced plummeting prices and tourism has collapsed in the pandemic.
The world needs a financing framework to deal with preparedness and response in emergencies, and must keep supply chains open to better safeguard economic systems, she said.
(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)
