Securing 200 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses for India and Other Poor Countries

COVID-19 vaccine under development by AstraZeneca

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] A total of 200 million doses of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, to be supplied at less than $3 (about 3,500 won) to poor countries, have been secured.

According to major foreign media on the 29th (local time), Serum Institute of India (SII), a vaccine manufacturer in India, plans to supply an additional 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to poor countries including India. SII explained, "With the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI doubling their funds, additional COVID-19 vaccines have been secured."

The additional funds will be used to support the development of COVID-19 vaccines by pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Novavax. The total fund amounts to $300 million (about 350.9 billion won), and additional vaccines will be supplied if necessary.

GAVI is carrying out the 'COVAX' initiative together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to ensure sufficient and equitable distribution of vaccines to all countries worldwide. They aim to supply more than 2 billion doses of vaccines globally by the end of 2021.

More than 150 countries are participating in the COVAX initiative. The United States and China are not on the list of participating countries.

According to the international statistics site Worldometer, as of today, the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is 33,584,726, and the cumulative number of deaths is 1,007,193.