COVAX to set aside 5% of vaccine doses for emergency stockpile

GENEVA: The COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme will set aside 5% of the vaccine doses it procures for a "buffer" to be used in humanitarian settings or released in the case of severe outbreaks, the GAVI vaccine alliance said on Tuesday.

That amounts to up to 100 million vaccine doses by the end of 2021, it said. COVAX is the programme backed by the World Health Organization and GAVI vaccine alliance to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries. So far, 31 million doses have been delivered to 57 economies, although the rates trail behind wealthier countries, revealing inequity that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described this week as "grotesque".