GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization appealed on Friday for countries to donate doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines to help meet vaccination targets for the most vulnerable in poorer countries.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the COVAX vaccine facility, run with the GAVI vaccine alliance, needed 10 million doses immediately as a stop-gap measure.
“COVAX is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have. Bilateral deals, export bans, and vaccine nationalism have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros told a news conference. “Ten million doses is not much and it’s not nearly enough.”
(Reporting by Emma Farge, Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; writing by Stephanie Nebehay)
