COVAX To Receive Less COVID-19 Vaccines From AstraZeneca Due To Bureaucratic Delay - GAVI

The World Health Organization-led COVAX international distribution initiative will be able to secure only 96 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine produced in Europe, instead of 153 million initially agreed due to a bureaucratic delay, Seth Berkeley, the CEO of the international vaccine alliance Gavi, said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2021) The World Health Organization-led COVAX international distribution initiative will be able to secure only 96 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine produced in Europe, instead of 153 million initially agreed due to a bureaucratic delay, Seth Berkeley, the CEO of the international vaccine alliance Gavi, said on Wednesday.

COVAX will also distribute 240 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed to the Serum Institute of India under the brand name Covishield, according to the official.

"It also covers 96 million doses of the same vaccine [AstraZeneca/Oxford] secured under an advanced purchase agreement signed directly between GAVI and AstraZeneca in December ... I have to say in the interests of transparency, this number is less than the 153 million that we initially had contracted for in this first time period," Berkeley said at a COVAX press conference.

In an effort to discard the speculative context, the GAVI CEO outlined the reason behind the shortfall in number of vaccine doses available for immediate supply.

"This is not because our supply has been diverted elsewhere but because there was a delay to the expected timeline for the candidate securing WHO emergency use listing, which means that some shipments will be moved into the third quarter," Berkeley stated.

This confirms the the interim report issued earlier in the day, saying that COVAX expects to receive 96 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine produced in Europe, as well as 240 million doses of Covishield.