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* St Lucia became 100th country to receive vaccines
* 38 mln doses delivered in six weeks - statement
* Despite supply issues, 2 billion doses to be provided in
2021
(Adds details and context)
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, April 8 (Reuters) - The COVAX vaccine facility has
delivered nearly 38.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 102
countries and economies across six continents, six weeks after
it began to roll out supplies, according to a statement on
Thursday.
The programme offers a lifeline to low-income countries in
particular, allowing them in the first instance to inoculate
health workers and others at high risk, even if their
governments have not managed to secure vaccines from the
manufacturers.
But there have been some delays, the GAVI vaccine alliance
and World Health Organization said in a statement.
Reduced availability of delayed some deliveries in March and
April, and much of the output of the Serum Institute of India,
which makes the AstraZeneca vaccine, is being kept in
India, where daily infections surpassed 100,000 for the first
time on Monday.
The Caribbean island of St. Lucia became the 100th country
to receive vaccines through COVAX. Iran, also battling a record
rate of infection, is another recent recipient.
The 102 countries reached so far include 61 benefiting from
a mechanism essentially financed by donors.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday
called it a "travesty" that some countries still did not have
enough vaccines to begin inoculating health workers and the most
vulnerable.
GAVI said last month that it planned to deliver 237 million
doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine - which has been produced at
cost for a few dollars a dose, and does not require the advanced
refrigeration of some other coronavirus vaccines - to 142
countries by the end of May.
"COVAX may be on track to deliver to all participating
economies in the first half of the year, yet we still face a
daunting challenge as we seek to end the acute stage of the
pandemic," GAVI chief executive Seth Berkley said in the
statement.
Nonetheless, COVAX still expects to deliver at least 2
billion doses this year 2021, and to diversify the offering
beyond the AstraZeneca/Oxford and Pfizer/BioNTech shots it is
currently supplying.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
