What is Covax?

So far, richer countries have been able to buy far more Covid jabs than poorer ones. The Covax scheme was set up by the WHO, the Gavi vaccines alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to try to prevent poorer countries from being pushed to the back of the queue. 

 The programme is designed so that richer countries buying vaccines agree to help finance access for poorer nations, too. It hopes to deliver more than two billion doses to people in 190 countries in less than a year. In particular, it wants to ensure 92 poorer countries will receive access to vaccines at the same time as 98 wealthier countries. It aims to reach up to 20% of the populations of poorer countries, at no cost to their governments. Most African countries are intended recipients of Covax, but a number of them like Senegal have been making provisions for vaccines outside the initiative.

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