The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday that it sent to the Maldives a first batch of 100,000 syringes for COVID-19 vaccines in preparation for the first shipments of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines under the COVAX vaccine sharing plan.
The syringes, along with 1,000 safety boxes for vaccine storage, are expected to arrive in the Maldives on Tuesday, UNICEF said. Other countries benefiting from the first wave of shipments are Côte d’Ivoire and Sao Tome and Principe.
Tuesday’s shipment will be followed in the coming weeks by the delivery of some 14.5 million 0.5-milliliter (ml) and 0.3 ml syringes to more than 30 countries, UNICEF said in a statement.
The COVAX center – co-led by the World Health Organization, the GAVI Alliance for Vaccines and others – allocated about 330 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the poorest countries earlier this month. It aims to supply these doses and millions more during the first half of 2021.
It is essential to have sufficient supplies of syringes already in place in each country before the vaccine arrives so that it can be administered safely.
Henrietta Fore – Executive Director of UNICEF
This would allow vaccination to begin immediately, she said, and “help reverse the trend of this terrible virus.
UNICEF said the 0.5 ml syringes would be used with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and the 0.3 ml syringes would be for the Pfizer-BioNTech bite.
