Moscow, Jul 6 (FN Bureau) The World Health Organization’s COVAX sharing initiative has signed agreements with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers for up to 1.5 billion doses, an official in charge of COVAX said on Tuesday. The WHO has reached advance purchase agreements with four COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that included Moderna, for 500 million doses, Novavax for 350 million doses, Johnson&Johnson for 200 million doses, and Clover, for 414 million doses, Aurelia Nguyen, Managing Director of COVAX Facility under the WHO, said during the ACT Accelerator Facilitation Council Briefing.
The COVAX initiative has shipped 95 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 135 participating countries and regions, Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of the WHO, said during the briefing. As only several countries are capable of producing COVID-19 vaccines, a large number of countries in the world, especially the low-income countries, rely on COVAX for their vaccine supplies. The WHO said earlier that it hoped to be able to deliver 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX in 2021.