The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine can be rolled out globally after it was given emergency use listing by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Today WHO gave emergency use listing to two versions of the Oxford-AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine, giving the green light for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through Covax.”
Dr Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director general for access to medicines and health products, said: “Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk, contributing to the Covax Facility’s goal of equitable vaccine distribution.
“But we must keep up the pressure to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere and facilitate global access. To do that, we need two things – a scale-up of manufacturing capacity, and developers’ early submission of their vaccines for WHO review.”
