Serum Institute of India

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Ghana becomes the first nation in the world to receive Covax vaccines
Ghana becomes the first nation in the world to receive Covax vaccines
Credit: Illustration: Pendect, Ashley Winkler. (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0)

Ghana received delivery of 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 jabs acquired through the Covax initiative. The initiative is an immunisation-sharing scheme designed to help developing countries in the vaccination effort.

The United Nations-backed initiative delivered Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India.

The World Health Organization director Dr Tedros Adhanom previously said that bilateral deals between rich nationals and vaccine manufacturers have made it more difficult for Covax to acquire jabs, leading Rwanda's President Paul Kagame to condemn "hypocrisy and double standards" in global distribution efforts.

Health
World's biggest vaccine producer states that enough Covid-19 vaccine will only be available in 2024
World's biggest vaccine producer states that enough Covid-19 vaccine will only be available in 2024
Credit: Serum Institute

Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute, has stated that the production capacity for vaccines is not increasing quickly enough.

He said that "it’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet" estimating that with a two-dose vaccine 15 billion doses will be needed.