UNB, Dhaka :
With the rollout of the Covid vaccination programme, the United Nations has urged key workers and other vulnerable people in 145 countries to get immunised by the first half of this year.
The aim of Wednesday’s announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to help governments chalk out their vaccine distribution programmes, by providing details about which vaccine they can expect to receive between now and June-end.
UN Children’s Fund UNICEF-which plays a key role in immunisation campaigns worldwide-has welcomed the development, describing UN-led COVAX initiative as the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation ever mounted against Covid.
“We must get this right”, said Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Our country offices will support governments as they move forward with this first wave to ensure that they are ready to receive the vaccines that require ultra-cold chain (storage).
“This includes ensuring that health workers are fully trained in how to store and handle the vaccines… Many of these doses will go to health workers in urban areas who are at the highest risk of exposure to Covid-19 infections.”
Some 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires ultra-cold chain storage, are to be delivered to 18 countries in the first quarter of this year, out of an agreed total of 40 million.
An additional 336 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab are to be lined up for dispatch to nearly all countries that have signed up to the COVAX scheme, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-once it has been approved for use by the UN health agency.
The total number of doses will cover, on average, 3.3 percent of the population of the countries benefiting from the scheme.
This will make it possible for governments to protect their most vulnerable citizens such as frontline healthcare workers, the World Health Organization said, along with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, UNICEF chief Fore noted that the agency had been getting ready by stockpiling half a billion syringes and working with airlines, governments and other partners to iron out potential supply hiccups.
“This work has already begun,” she said. “For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the countries that will be an early recipient of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires ultra-cold chain storage. UNICEF is providing Bosnia and Herzegovina with eight refrigerators that will be able to store vaccines in temperatures as low as -80 degrees Celsius. The first two refrigerators recently arrived…The remaining will follow as soon as possible.”
With the rollout of the Covid vaccination programme, the United Nations has urged key workers and other vulnerable people in 145 countries to get immunised by the first half of this year.
The aim of Wednesday’s announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to help governments chalk out their vaccine distribution programmes, by providing details about which vaccine they can expect to receive between now and June-end.
UN Children’s Fund UNICEF-which plays a key role in immunisation campaigns worldwide-has welcomed the development, describing UN-led COVAX initiative as the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation ever mounted against Covid.
“We must get this right”, said Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Our country offices will support governments as they move forward with this first wave to ensure that they are ready to receive the vaccines that require ultra-cold chain (storage).
“This includes ensuring that health workers are fully trained in how to store and handle the vaccines… Many of these doses will go to health workers in urban areas who are at the highest risk of exposure to Covid-19 infections.”
Some 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires ultra-cold chain storage, are to be delivered to 18 countries in the first quarter of this year, out of an agreed total of 40 million.
An additional 336 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab are to be lined up for dispatch to nearly all countries that have signed up to the COVAX scheme, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-once it has been approved for use by the UN health agency.
The total number of doses will cover, on average, 3.3 percent of the population of the countries benefiting from the scheme.
This will make it possible for governments to protect their most vulnerable citizens such as frontline healthcare workers, the World Health Organization said, along with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, UNICEF chief Fore noted that the agency had been getting ready by stockpiling half a billion syringes and working with airlines, governments and other partners to iron out potential supply hiccups.
“This work has already begun,” she said. “For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the countries that will be an early recipient of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires ultra-cold chain storage. UNICEF is providing Bosnia and Herzegovina with eight refrigerators that will be able to store vaccines in temperatures as low as -80 degrees Celsius. The first two refrigerators recently arrived…The remaining will follow as soon as possible.”
