One billion vaccines given worldwide

PARIS • The number of Covid-19 vaccines administered globally surpassed the one billion mark last Saturday, offering hope even as the number of coronavirus cases worldwide hit a new daily record mainly due to an explosion of infections in India.

At least 1,002,938,540 vaccine doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories, according to a tally by Agence France-Presse on Saturday.

Still, the number of new infections topped 893,000 worldwide on Friday, a new daily record.

The pandemic has now infected more than 140 million people, with over three million people killed since the coronavirus was first detected in China in December 2019.

With the pandemic still showing no sign of slowing, governments around the world are placing their hopes in vaccines.

And worldwide, the number of vaccine doses administered has doubled in less than a month.

But while the majority of poor countries have also started to vaccinate their populations - mainly thanks to the Covax programme - inoculation is still largely a privilege of high-income countries, home to 16 per cent of the world's population, administering 47 per cent of vaccine doses.

By contrast, low-income countries account for just 0.2 per cent of shots so far.

In the United States, regulators have approved the re-start of a roll-out of Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) vaccine that had been halted over blood clotting concerns.

In Europe, Belgium on Saturday said it would authorise the J&J shot for all adults, having already received 36,000 doses and expecting a total of 1.4 million between April and June.

The European Union will be able to produce enough vaccines to achieve its target for immunity of its adult population by the middle of July, the EU executive's vaccine task force chief said in an interview with a Greek newspaper published yesterday.

The European Commission has set a target of inoculating 70 per cent of the EU's adult population by the end of this summer, banking on a big rise in vaccine deliveries to accelerate its vaccination drive.

"We are confident that we will be able to produce a sufficient number of vaccines to achieve the goal of collective immunity, which means that 70 per cent of the adult population would have been vaccinated by mid-July," European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told the Greek weekly newspaper To Vima.

Proportion of vaccine doses administered by high-income countries.

Shots given by low-income countries.

The European Commission said last week that it expects to seal the world's biggest vaccine supply deal within days, securing up to 1.8 billion doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine between 2021 and 2023.

Meanwhile, hard-hit Brazil has seen its deadliest month yet of the coronavirus, with nearly 68,000 reported fatalities so far this month.

Brazil, with more than 389,000 deaths, has the world's second-highest coronavirus death toll after the United States, with over 571,000.

The Brazilian government had, however, cut by nearly 30 per cent the number of Covid-19 vaccines expected to be delivered between January and April, according to a new calendar released by Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga.

Last month, former health minister Eduardo Pazuello said Brazil would receive roughly 103 million doses in the first four months of the year. However, the latest calendar, released by Mr Queiroga on Saturday, showed only 73 million doses.

The government said the reduction was due to lower-than-expected volume of active ingredients received and also because some vaccines are pending permits for use in the country.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS