Introduction

As COVID-19 vaccination campaigns progress in some countries around the world, we are seeing the light at the end of the global pandemic tunnel. By mid-April 2021, close to 735,000,000 vaccination doses had been administered, with over 405,000,000 individuals having received at least one vaccination dose, broadly 5 per cent of the global population.

Yet, these impressive numbers mostly reflect the vaccination drives in a small number of countries, with close to 60 per cent of vaccination doses being administered in just three countries: the United States of America, China and India. Only 11 countries had administered more than 50 doses per 100 persons (Israel, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Palau, Bhutan, Chile, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States of America, the Maldives and Monaco). Whilst the second week of April 2021 marked the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to 100 economies through the COVAX Facility, including to 61 of the countries eligible for vaccines through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC), just 0.6 per cent of all vaccination doses globally, or fewer than 4,700,000 doses, have been administered in Sub-Saharan Africa. Around the world, countries grappling with the most intense pre-existing humanitarian crises (as measured by the Inform Severity Index) are among those with the least access to doses. In the 14 countries in the world identified as facing very severe humanitarian crisis, an average of 0.16 vaccination doses have been administered per 100 persons.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies