UNICEF will lead the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to low-and middle-income countries. In particular, the UN Children's Fund will coordinate the purchase of vaccines by eighty rich countries that have announced their participation in the international cooperation program for the development and production of coronavirus vaccines. This is reported by the UN press service.
The purchase and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines will be the largest operation of its kind in history, according to UNICEF, noting that several drugs already in development " inspire hope.
Henrietta Faure, Executive Director of UNICEF:
"This is a multi-stakeholder collaboration – between governments, manufacturers and other partners-to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. UNICEF's contribution to the collective effort to provide everyone with a vaccine is our supply capacity. This way we can make sure that all countries will receive doses of the drug as soon as it is available."
UNICEF is the largest buyer of vaccines in the world. The Fund purchases more than two billion doses of vaccines from 100 countries each year, both for routine vaccinations and to fight disease outbreaks and epidemics. Over the past 20 years, the Foundation has saved 13 million lives and immunized 760 million children.
It is expected that in 2021, taking into account the efforts to combat coronavirus, the volume of purchases and deliveries of vaccines by the Children's Fund will double.
