(Recasts and updates throughout after COVAX publishes plan)
By Stephanie Nebehay and Kate Kelland
GENEVA/LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The COVAX vaccine-sharing
facility has allocated at least 330 million doses of COVID-19
vaccines for poorer countries and will aim to deliver these and
many millions more in the first half of 2021, agencies leading
the scheme said on Wednesday.
Publishing an interim distribution plan, the COVAX Facility
said distribution would cover an average of 3.3% of total
populations of 145 countries taking part in the initial round.
The allocation includes 240 million doses of the
AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute
of India, an additional 96 million doses of the same shot made
by AstraZeneca, plus 1.2 million doses of Pfizer
-BioNTech'S COVID-19 vaccine.
"We will soon be able to start delivering life-saving
vaccines globally, an outcome we know is essential if we are to
have any chance of being able to beat this pandemic," GAVI's
chief executive Seth Berkley told reporters on a briefing.
COVAX is co-led by the GAVI alliance which secures vaccines
for poor countries, the World Health Organization, the Coalition
for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the U.N. Children's
Fund.
It said the allocations and distributions would be subject
to various caveats, including WHO emergency approval for the
vaccines, and countries' readiness and acceptance.
WHO official Ann Lindstrand told the briefing the first
COVAX doses - of AstraZeneca's and Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccines -
should be delivered "hopefully by the end of February, beginning
of March".
South Africa, Cap Verde and Rwanda would be among some of
the first countries in Africa to get the Pfizer shot, she said.
The COVAX allocation plan comes with vaccines still in
limited supply, even in the rich countries that bought up most
of the early doses. Last week, the EU announced export controls
in response to news that AstraZeneca was cutting its early
supply to the bloc due to production problems.
Berkley noted that the 96 million COVAX doses allocated from
AstraZeneca were fewer than the 153 million COVAX had initially
contracted for in this time period. He said this was "not
because our supply has been diverted elsewhere" but due to
delays in getting the necessary WHO emergency use listing.
In all, 190 countries have joined COVAX, which was launched
last April with the goal of ensuring equitable access to
vaccines during the pandemic.
Berkley said last week that COVAX aimed to deliver a total
of 2.3 billion doses by year-end, including 1.8 billion to lower
income countries at no cost to their governments.
UNICEF's chief executive Henrietta Fore told Wednesday's
briefing COVAX has also reached longer-term agreement with
India's Serum Institute to supply 1.1 billion doses of the
vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Novavax to COVAX.
These shots would be delivered over a number of years at the
cost of about $3 per dose for low- and middle-income countries,
she said, adding this was "great value for COVAX".
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay
Editing by Toby Chopra, John Stonestreet and Peter Graff)