COVAX Reallocates COVID-19 Vaccines to Countries with Lowest Coverage

The World Health Organization-backed COVAX vaccine-sharing program is changing how it allocates COVID-19 vaccine doses and is now delivering the vaccines to nations with the lowest coverage.

Since distribution began in January, COVAX has been allocating doses mostly on a population basis among its 140 participating countries, which meant that some wealthy nations with large vaccine supply deals with drugmakers were eligible to receive shots while some poorer nations received none.  

COVAX expects to deliver 75 million this month to 49 nations using the new allocation method. The initiative has distributed more than 300 million doses so far.