Over a billion Covid-19 vaccine doses administered globally

More than one billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide, less than five months after the first mass inoculation programmes began to be rolled out, according to an AFP tally at 17:45 GMT on Saturday.

At least 1,002,938,540 doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories, according to the tally compiled from official sources.

More than half, or 58 per cent, have been given in three countries: the United States with 225.6 million doses, China with 216.1 million doses and India with 138.4 million.

However, in terms of the proportion of the population who have been vaccinated, Israel is in the lead, with nearly six out of every 10 Israelis fully inoculated.

That is followed by the United Arab Emirates, Britain, US, Chile, Bahrain and Uruguay.

In the EU, 128 million doses have been administered to 21 percent of the population. Malta is leading the way in the 27-nation bloc, with 47 percent of its population inoculated and Hungary with 37 percent. But in Germany, only 22.6 percent of the population have been vaccinated, 22.3 percent in Spain, 20.5 percent in France and 19.9 percent in Italy.

Worldwide, the number of vaccine doses administered has doubled in less than a month as inoculation programmes pick up speed.

While the majority of poor countries have also started to vaccinate, mainly thanks to the Covax programme, inoculation is still largely a privilege of high-income countries, as defined by the World Bank, which are home to 16 percent of the world’s population but have administered 47 percent of vaccine doses.

Low-income countries account for just 0.2 percent of doses administered.

Some 12 countries have still to begin vaccinating — seven in Africa (Tanzania, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Chad, Burundi, Central African Republic and Eritrea; three in Oceania (Vanuatu, Samoa and Kiribati; one in Asia (North Korea); and one in the Caribbean (Haiti).

Despite the troubles that has plagued it since it was approved for use, the jab developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University is the most widely used so far, and has been administered in three-quarters or 156 of those countries and territories that have started vaccinating.

A rival jab developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been administered in 91 countries, or 44 per cent of the total. Another shot developed by Moderna has been administered in 46 countries or 22 per cent. Sinopharm’s jab has been administered in at elast 41 countries or 20 per cent of the total, Sputnik V in at least 32 countries or 15 per cent, and Sinovac in at least 21 or 10 percent.