At a time when the planet has exceeded four billion injections, poor countries are still struggling to obtain precious doses of anti-Covid vaccines, despite recent donations from rich countries.
At least 4,014,302,550 doses have been injected around the world, stopped at 11:00 GMT, AFP reported on Thursday from official sources. World population reported, 52 doses (first or second) were administered per 100 inhabitants.
Injections a bit slow: this fourth billion was reached in 30 days, while it took only 26 to reach the previous one. The first and second Arabs were reached in about 140 and 40 days, respectively.
– Emirates is moving forward –
Four out of ten doses (1.6 billion) were administered in China, India (451 million) and the United States (343 million), completing the podium in absolute terms.
But compared to population, among countries with more than a million inhabitants, it is in the Middle East that the champion of vaccination is to be found: the United Arab Emirates, which administered 168 doses per 100 inhabitants. Uruguay (137) and Bahrain (134) are second and third. Emirates flirt with 70% of the population fully vaccinated, Uruguay and Bahrain over 60%.
Next in the lead pack are Qatar, Chile and Canada (129 doses per 100 inhabitants), Israel (128), Singapore (125), the United Kingdom, Mongolia and Denmark (124), as well as Belgium (122). These countries are more or less widely fully vaccinated (between 52% and 63%) with over 50% of the population.
Not far away are China (111 doses per 100 inhabitants), the United States (104) and the European Union (103). The United States and the European Union have completely immunized almost half of their populations, while China does not state this figure.
– USA stalls –
But the United States, whose campaign started very vigorously, now vaccinates much more slowly. In the past week, the country has injected doses to only 0.2% of its population each day, far behind China (1.1%) and the European Union (0.7%).
Bhutan is currently immunizing 4.9 percent of its population with the fastest, single injectable dose per day. As it did for the first dose in the spring, the country has given a second dose to about 60% of its population in about ten days. Speed not seen in any other country.
Malaysia and Sri Lanka follow (1.5 percent of their population per day).
In Europe, the currently fastest countries are Denmark, Ireland and Turkey (1.1% each), ahead of Belgium and France (1%).
– Adventures in poor countries –
While most poor countries have now begun to vaccinate, mainly thanks to the COVAX mechanism (WHO, the Gavi Coalition and the Sepi Coalition), anti-Covid vaccination is very uneven: “high-income” countries (in the sense of the World Bank) ) administered an average of 97 doses per 100 population, compared to only 1.6 doses in “low-income” countries.
However, injections in these countries have recently faltered, thanks to donations of unused doses by wealthy countries, mainly AstraZeneca/Oxford or Johnson & Johnson.
Africa remains the continent behind, with 4.8 doses per 100 inhabitants, 10 times less than the world average (52).
While many wealthy countries are already vaccinating teenagers, three countries have still not launched their campaigns: Burundi, Eritrea and North Korea. Haiti and Tanzania are the latest countries to introduce vaccination on July 16 and July 28, respectively.
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