Which country has vaccinated the most in Latin America?
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(CNN) -
When Uddhab Gautam received its first dose of vaccine in February, COVID-19 cases in Nepal were low.
Now, three months later, coronavirus infections in the Himalayan nation have spiraled out of control, leading to a shortage of hospital beds and oxygen, and shutting down most of the country.
But despite needing it more than ever, the 67-year-old retired banker has no idea when he will receive his second dose of Covishield, AstraZeneca's covid-1 vaccine, made by the Serum Institute of India (SII, for its acronym in English).
"As an older person, I am afraid of contracting the virus," he said from his home in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
"I have chosen to stay home."
Gautam's situation is similar to that shared by millions of people around the world: As India's own new coronavirus crisis has exploded, IBS, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, can no longer export its products. products.
Last week, the SII said it would not restart deliveries to Covax, a global initiative aimed at distributing vaccines to countries regardless of their wealth, until the end of this year.
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While the SII decision will be a lifesaver for India, which still reports around 200,000 new cases a day, the delay poses a big problem for developing countries that rely on Covax to control their own outbreaks.
The world is already 140 million doses behind, and by the end of June, that gap will have reached 190 million doses, said - last week - the United Nations agency for children, one of Covax's partners. .
There is currently no deadline to resolve the shortage, UNICEF said.
That creates a very real problem, not just for countries with limited access to vaccines where cases are on the rise, but for the entire world as well.
"We are concerned that the deadly rebound in India is a precursor to what will happen if those warnings are not heeded," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a press release last week.
"The cost to children and families will be incalculable."
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Why is there a shortage in the Covax
Last year IBS, made by Covishield, the name for AstraZeneca's covid-19 vaccine made in India, promised to deliver 200 million vaccines to Covax.
It was established that more than 111 million of those doses would be delivered between February and May of this year, mainly in countries in Africa and Asia-Pacific, according to data from Gavi, a global public-private health partnership that Covax leads.
But as of Tuesday, only about 30 million doses of IBS had been distributed through the Covax, according to Gavi.
According to Unicef, delays in the delivery of SII are one of the main reasons why the launch of the Covax is so delayed, along with vaccine nationalism, limited production capacity and lack of funding.
The Covax should have already delivered 170 million total doses, Unicef said.
Instead, as of Tuesday, it has delivered 71 million doses to 125 countries and territories, with about 42% coming from IBS and 56% from AstraZeneca, according to Gavi data.
IBS began distributing vaccines abroad at the beginning of the year when cases in India had declined and other countries were "desperately in need of help," explained the company's CEO, Adar Poonawalla, in a statement last week.
But as cases from India increased, the SII kept supplies at home where there was a growing need.
The Indian government denied media reports that it had banned the export of vaccines.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in March that IBS doses would be delayed.
At that time, it had delivered just 28 million doses.
As India's case burden began to rise, the demand for vaccination grew and several states reported a vaccine shortage.
That raised questions about why India, a world leader in vaccine manufacturing, was running out of doses.
As of Tuesday, only 3% of India's population had been fully vaccinated.
The IBS said, last week, that it had delivered more than 200 million doses in total.
“We continue to expand manufacturing and prioritize India.
We also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by the end of this year, ”Poonwalla said.
Poonwalla said IBS had never exported vaccines "at the expense of the people of India" and would "remain committed to doing everything possible to support the vaccination campaign in the country."
"We have been working tirelessly with the Government to do our best for humanity and we will continue in the same spirit," he said.
A Gavi spokesperson said in a statement that it was in close contact with both the SII and the Indian government, and hoped that deliveries could resume at reduced capacity in the third quarter of this year.
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This is the situation country by country in Latin America
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Across the border in Nepal, where coronavirus cases and deaths are on the rise, the announcement of SII has left authorities in a bind.
Nepal has only fully vaccinated 1.9% of its population and has almost run out of vaccines.
The country has reported more than 500,000 cases of covid-19 and 6,700 deaths from the disease.
But Nepal has the third highest test positivity rate in the world (about 40% of tests are positive), suggesting that it does not detect all cases.
Health and Population Ministry spokesman Dr Jageshwor Gautam said last week that the country only has between 50,000 and 60,000 doses of IBS Covishield in storage for "emergency purposes."
Nepalese Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi said last week that authorities planned to use them in a few days to give older people their second dose.
The country expected to receive 1 million more vaccines by the end of April, but they never arrived.
In total, Nepal only received 348,000 doses of its 1.9 million allocated doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through Covax.
According to Tripathi, Covax initially promised 14.8 million doses, enough for about a quarter of the country's population.
Millions of Nepalese have not received any dose and 1.5 million people, most of them 65 years or older, have received one dose of the vaccine but have not yet received the second, raising concerns about how long it will last. your immunity.
"I haven't heard anything since the first dose," said Durga Kaumari Paudel, 66, a homemaker who lives with her husband and son in Kathmandu.
One of her neighbors died this month from covid-19, which increases her concern: she has been so afraid that she has not left her home in a month.
Covid-19 cases skyrocket in Nepal and it is feared that the outbreak could be the same as that in India
It is not clear whether delaying the timing of the second dose will decrease efficacy, but trials show that two doses of a vaccine are likely to be better than one, according to Gavi.
Health Minister Tripathi said Nepal is in talks with several countries in a bid to get the vaccines it needs.
He said he spoke with officials in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries about the AstraZeneca vaccine, and sent letters to the health ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, China and Russia on Wednesday updating them on Nepal's needs.
“Soon we will get the vaccines we need.
We are very confident, "he said.
Nepal is not alone.
Bangladesh was to receive more than 10 million doses of Covishield by the end of May, according to Gavi's assignments.
But it's unclear if they ever made it, and Bangladesh has now run out of vaccines, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The country has fully vaccinated only 2.4% of its 164 million people, and cases appear to be on the rise again.
Following a request from Bangladesh, China provided another 600,000 doses of vaccines, the Chinese embassy in Dhaka said in a statement on Friday.
Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Cambodia also expected deliveries from Covishield and now all are experiencing spikes in cases.
According to the International Federation, "most" countries in Asia were struggling with vaccine shortages.
"Asia is now the epicenter of this global pandemic," said Alexander Matheou, IRFC Asia-Pacific Director.
"Tens of thousands of lives are lost each week and vaccines must be available so that we can avoid more dire rates in the weeks and months to come."
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A crippled Covax isn't just a problem for Asian countries - it has potentially global ramifications.
"We have issued repeated warnings about the risks of lowering our guard and leaving low- and middle-income countries without equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapies," UNICEF's Fore said in a statement.
"The longer the virus continues to spread uncontrollably, the greater the risk of more deadly or contagious variants emerging."
This month, Covax co-leader, the Coalition for the Advancement of Innovations for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), established a Covax Manufacturing Task Force to address vaccine supply challenges such as shortages of raw Materials.
The Gavi spokesperson said one of their top priorities today was working with governments with the largest supplies to deliver vaccines through Covax to countries where they could have "an immediate impact to address this short-term supply disruption." .
They did not specify which countries it included.
But, as Fore points out, IBS isn't the only group that can help solve the vaccine shortage.
Only WHO approved vaccines can be delivered through Covax.
Earlier this month, the WHO listed China's Sinopharm for emergency use, making it the sixth vaccine to receive the green light to be used as part of Covax.
Gavi said earlier this month it was in talks with manufacturers, including Sinopharm, to get more doses of Covax, Reuters reported.
While some countries are desperate for vaccines, others are vaccinating the least vulnerable, such as young people, a situation that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described - last week - as "vaccine apartheid."
In his opening remarks at the World Health Assembly on Monday, he noted that more than 75% of all vaccines have been administered in just 10 countries.
"The current vaccine crisis is a shocking inequality that perpetuates the pandemic," he said.
“The number of doses administered globally so far would have been enough to cover all healthcare workers and older people, if they had been distributed equitably.
We could have been in a much better situation.
UNICEF said in an email that it was urging countries with overdoses to share them as an immediate stopgap measure.
The International Federation also calls on states and pharmaceutical companies to act more quickly in the distribution of vaccines.
ANALYSIS |
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"We cannot afford to get bogged down in negotiations for the next six months," said International Federation President Francesco Rocca, adding that the Government needed to share actions, particularly with countries experiencing covid-19 surges.
Tedros asked manufacturers to give Covax the first right to refuse new vaccines or to assign 50% of the vaccines to Covax this year.
"There is no diplomatic way to put it," he added.
"A small group of countries that make and buy most of the world's vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world."
CNN's Julia Hollingsworth wrote and reported from Hong Kong. Sugam Pokharel reported from Atlanta. Asha Thapa, Nishant Khanal, and Kosh Raj Koirala reported from Kathmandu, Nepal.
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