UNICEF To Supply One Billion Syringes, 10 Mln Safety Boxes To Low Income Countries

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) will supply up to 1 billion syringes and 10 million safety boxes to 82 countries lower and middle income countries in 2021 to ensure they are ready for COVID-19 vaccinations

ISLAMABAD (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Mar, 2021 ) :United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) will supply up to 1 billion syringes and 10 million safety boxes to 82 countries lower and middle income countries in 2021 to ensure they are ready for COVID-19 vaccinations.

To meet the demand for these vital supplies, UNICEF created a stockpile of almost half a billion syringes in its warehouses in Copenhagen and Dubai in preparation for the broader rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in 82 low- and lower middle-income countries, said a document of UNICEF.

UNICEF has been working with airlines, logistics operators and freight forwarders to ensure the syringes are treated as priority freight, whether they are being shipped direct from a manufacturer or from UNICEF warehouses to the destination country's port of entry.

Although the first deliveries will be transported by air, most of the syringes and safety boxes will be transported by sea due to the large amount of space they take up as cargo.

"In this global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, syringes are as vital as the vaccine itself," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.