100 million on February 1, 500 million on March 25 ... and now 1 billion vaccinations against Covid-19 worldwide.
This new very symbolic level was crossed this Saturday, April 24, according to data compiled by the site Our World in Data.
This billion vaccinations (first and second injections combined), or 13 per 100 inhabitants on the planet, of course hides very significant territorial disparities.
This can be seen by relating the values to the population for each country.
We have chosen to remove from the classification micro-states with a few tens of thousands of inhabitants, such as San Marino or the Seychelles, where vaccination coverage can increase very quickly and much more easily.
Israel still ahead
A leader from the very beginning, Israel is still firmly in the lead.
More than 10 million doses have now been injected there, or 120 per 100 inhabitants.
The Hebrew country very quickly implemented great means to inoculate its population, in particular by opening many vaccination centers.
He had also concluded specific contracts with the pharmaceutical juggernaut Pfizer, ensuring to receive more doses in exchange - in particular - for access to certain health data on vaccinated people.
The population is now celebrating the start of a return to normal life, for example no longer having to wear the mask outdoors.
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However, the pace has been stalling for several weeks and Israel could soon be overtaken by the United Arab Emirates, in second place with just over 100 doses administered per 100 inhabitants.
Chile follows (73 per 100 inhabitants), which did not start until the beginning of February, and the Island of Malta (70).
The United States comes in 7th place, with 67 vaccinations per 100 inhabitants.
This position, which US President Joe Biden recently celebrated, also allows North America to lead the rankings among the continents.
European countries at the same level
France, Germany, Italy, Spain… The States of the European Union are subject to the same rate of orders and deliveries, carried out at European level.
It is therefore logical that almost all are found at the same level for the progress of vaccination, between 25 and 30 doses administered per 100 inhabitants, after having taken longer to really start than the United Kingdom or the States -United.
This ratio is greater than 28 per 100 inhabitants in France, which represents more than 19 million vaccinations carried out.
Vaccination worldwide as of April 24, 2021. LP /
The European continent (in which Our World in Data includes Russia) sits between North America and South America.
Europe is also in second position for the current rate of vaccination.
More than 3 million doses are administered there each day on average, or more than 4 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Africa very late
As experts have been expecting for several months, vaccination is struggling to advance in Africa.
Barely 1.3 doses per 100 inhabitants were administered there.
No data is available for a handful of countries and many others, such as Namibia or Niger, are close to zero. Morocco is the best performer, almost as high as that in Morocco. France.
Many African countries, often less developed, have not yet been able to purchase their own quantities of vaccines in large numbers.
The storage conditions of certain products also make the delivery of doses much more complex to these states with less advanced logistics.
The two messenger RNA products, Pfizer / BioNtech and Moderna, for example need to be stored at freezer temperatures (although this constraint could soon be relaxed).
The poorest countries should be able to benefit from the Covax device, through which rich countries provide them with vaccines.
But this one is lagging far behind.
Only 40 million doses were distributed in mid-April, out of a target of 2 billion in 2021.
Doses administered versus vaccinated people
This indicator of the number of doses administered must be clearly distinguished from that of people vaccinated, even if the classification does not change greatly. The majority of vaccines already available require two injections but that of Janssen (already widely used in the United States) is single-dose, for example. Each country has also set its own strategy, including categories that require only one injection regardless of the vaccine used, as well as the time between the two doses for all others.
By extending this period of time, it is thus possible during the first months to vaccinate more people with fewer stocks since it is not compulsory to keep part of them in order to "transplant" the inhabitants.
The Academy of Medicine offers outright spacing the two Pfizer or Moderna injections up to six months, which would "achieve collective immunity much more quickly with the same number of doses, while ensuring satisfactory individual protection" .
Read alsoCovid-19: is France really one of the "most advanced" European countries for adult vaccination?
In the UK, each person vaccinated with Pfizer waits for twelve weeks to receive the second dose. This period is 4 or 6 weeks in the majority of other European countries and 3 weeks in the United States. This difference allows Boris Johnson's country to still be well ahead of Joe Biden's for the ratio of the population having received at least one dose, while they are at the same level for that of the doses used.
