Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator

The World Health Organization has granted an emergency authorization to AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine, a move that should allow the U.N. agency's partners to ship millions of doses to countries as part of a U.N.-backed program to tame the pandemic.

The World Health Organization gave emergency use approval to AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines on Feb. 15, meaning distribution can start to poorer countries starved of doses to fight the pandemic.

In the article entitled "How Serbia soared ahead in vaccination campaign", BBC states that a comprehensive approach to the procurement of vaccines has put Serbia at the forefront of the race for vaccination of the population in continental Europe.

Vui said that 50.000 doses of the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus Sputnik V arrived at the Belgrade airport this morning, and that more Pfizer vaccines and AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive by the end of February.

South Africa suspended the start of its AstraZeneca inoculation programme over concerns the shot does not work on a new variant, with WHO experts due to meet on Feb. 8 to discuss the vaccine already facing questions about its efficacy for over-65s.

International experts on Feb. 3 inspected a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan that some U.S. officials had suggested was the source of the coronavirus, as plans were firmed up to distribute vaccines to poorer nations.

The main topic of the show is the success that Serbia has achieved in terms of procurement of vaccines and immunization of the population.
Brnabic pointed out at the start of the interview that Serbia was involved in the process of procuring vaccines from the very beginning.

Foto: Printskrin

He pointed out that the fight over coronavirus vaccines could cause even greater inequalities in the world.
Speaking at a panel at the World Business Forum in Davos yesterday, Tedros said that there is now the real danger that the very tools that could help to end the pandemic, vaccines, may exacerbate those same inequalities.

There is interest in many countries in accessing vaccines from India. In line with the PM's announcement that India sees international cooperation in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as its duty, India has played the role of the first responder in their neighbourhood as well as undertaken supplies to countries beyond.

Inoculating billions of people against Covid-19 in the shortest possible time was always going to be a massive, unprecedented operation in terms of scale and complexity.