WHO says widespread COVID-19 vaccinations not expected until mid-2021
A World Health Organization on Friday said it does not expect widespread vaccinations against COVID-19 until the middle of next year, stressing the importance of rigorous checks on their effectiveness and safety.
"We are not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told journalists at a briefing in Geneva.
Referring to vaccine clinical trials, She said, "this phase 3 must take longer because we need to see how truly protective the vaccine is and we also need to see how safe it is," reuters reported.
Meanwhile, The COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, approved by Russia last month, has been shown to elicit antibody response with no serious adverse events in small human trials, according to preliminary results published in The Lancet journal on Friday.
These vaccines aim to stimulate both arms of the immune system -- antibody and T cell responses -- so they attack the virus when it is circulating in the body, and also attack cells infected by SARS-CoV-2.
More than 170 countries are engaged in discussions to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which is focussed on speeding up the development of a drug, and ensuring doses for all countries and distributing the vaccines to the most high-risk segment of each population.
Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.62 crore people and killed over 8.66 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. Over 1.73 crore people across the world have recovered from the infection.
