Geneva, Jan 19 (AP) The global initiative to share coronavirus vaccines equally between rich and poor countries asked Wednesday for USD 5.2 billion in funds to be able to keep buying doses in coming months.

The UN-backed programme known as COVAX has delivered just over 1 billion doses since shipments started nearly a year ago.

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The initial goal was to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, but COVAX's lack of cash when vaccine deals were being made gave it a late start, and most of the world's vaccine doses have gone to wealthy nations who locked in contracts.

As things stand now, less than 10 per cent of the people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, while more than 60 per cent of world's overall population has been vaccinated — some with three or four doses.

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Seth Berkley, the CEO of GAVI, the global health organization that co-founded the COVAX initiative, said it was key to supplying poor countries with vaccine shots now and in the future but “we right now are basically out of money.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)