The WHO had listed the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
The World Health Organization (WHO) listed the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively-inexpensive shot in the developing countries.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday told a news briefing that they had all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, but they still need to scale up production.
Tedros also said that they continued to call for COVID-19 vaccine makers to submit their dossiers to the World Health Organization for review at the same time as they submitted them to regulators in high-income countries.
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A WHO statement stated that it had approved the COVID-19 vaccine as produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.
In a separate statement announcing the approval, AstraZeneca stated that in the first half of 2021, it was hoped that more than 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses would be made available to 145 countries through COVAX Facility, pending supply and operational challenges.
The listing by the UN health agency came days after a World Health Organization panel provided interim recommendations on the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that two COVID-19 vaccine doses with an interval of around 8-12 weeks should be given to all adults and these vaccines could also be used in countries with the South African COVID-19 variant as well.
The World Health Organization’s review found that the Astrazeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine met the “must-have” criteria for safety and its efficacy benefits outweighed its risks.
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