On Thursday, the World Health Organisation said that the economically weaker countries can expect the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to begin between late January and mid-February. 

Economically empowered countries like Canada, Britain, the United States and most of Europe have already started vaccinating their citizens. 

Kate O’Brien, the WHO head of vaccines said that Covax has agreed to put produce two billion doses and the first batch will be distributed in the coming weeks. 

Covax, a globally pooled vaccine, is aiming to produce enough vaccines to secure 20% of the population of each country that has put in funding by the end of 2021. Around 92 lower-income countries are involved in the Covax project. 

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When questioned about the status of economically backward African countries, O’Brien told a WHO live social media event: “The facility has access to over two billion doses of vaccine.

“We will start to deliver those vaccines probably by the end of January, and, if not, certainly by early February and mid-February.

“That’s how countries in Africa and South Asia, and other countries around the world of these 92 that are less able to afford vaccines, are actually going to get vaccines.”

The WHO gave the Pfizer vaccine approval on December 31, 2020, which helped pave the way for other countries looking to allow vaccinations.  

“There is a really big pipeline of vaccines that are coming through,” said O’Brien.

“We are in active review of the data on other vaccines and we do expect to be emergency-use listing additional vaccines in the coming weeks and the next months.

“We have 15 manufacturers that have contacted us believing that they have the data that are required to meet these highest standards.”

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WHO officials have affirmed that the new strain of COVID-19 seems to be more contagious but that shall not impact the efficacy of the vaccines being circulated. 

“The evaluation about whether the existing vaccines will be impacted at all is under way,” said O’Brien.

However, “the kinds of changes being seen in these variants are not felt to be likely to change the impact”, she added.

The head of vaccines for WHO said that it is too soon to determine how long the effects of the vaccines will last as their was not enough data present at the time. 

She added that it is common for people to feel unwell after a vaccine has been administered. 

“Up to a third of people are going to get a headache or not feel well for perhaps 24 hours; the data says sometimes up to 48 hours,” she said.

“It is your body’s immune response that is actually turning on.

“You might not feel at your best for the first couple of days, but there’s a reason for it: something good is happening in your body.”