WHO: Blanket booster use will increase vaccine-inequity and WHO Approves Covovax For Emergency Use: All You Need To Know About India-Made Covid-19 Vaccine

: The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned countries against blanket use of booster shots of Covid vaccines, saying it will not bring a definite end to the global pandemic, rather prolong it, as persisting vaccine inequity can help the virus with more opportunities to spread and mutate through countries with poorer vaccination coverage.
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic and boosters cannot be seen as ticket to go ahead with the planned celebrations without the need for other precautions,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
 The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has also issued interim guidance on booster doses, expressing concern that mass programmes by countries that can afford them will exacerbate vaccine inequity. It concluded that focus of immunisation must remain on decreasing deaths and severe illness.
 Currently, 20% of all vaccine doses administered are being given as boosters or additional doses, Tedros said. “Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the pandemic by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate,” he added.

He said the priority must be on supporting countries to vaccinate 40% of their populations as quickly as possible, and 70% by the middle of 2022. “It’s important to remember that the majority of hospitalisations and deaths are in unvaccinated people, not un-boosted people.”

 Tedros said with improved supplies globally, projections show that supplies should be sufficient to vaccinate the entire global adult population and give boosters to high risk populations by the first quarter of 2022. However, only later in 2022 will supplies be sufficient for extensive use of boosters in all adults.

Covovax, which is produced by the Serum Institute of India, is the ninth Covid-19 vaccine to have been approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

 In what is being seen as another gain in India's vaccine manufacturing sector, the World Health Organization on Friday issued an emergency use listing for anti-Covid vaccine Covovax. The latter is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licenze from Novavax. With the new approval, WHO is expanding the basket of jabs validated by the global health body against the viral disease.

 The EUL pertains to vaccines manufactured and marketed by SII as Covovax, a novel recombinant, adjuvanted SARS-CoV-2  vaccine, in India and licensed territories. As of now, Covovax is still awaiting emergency use authorization   from India's drug regulator DCGI.
Covovax is manufactured by SII, which already manufactures Covishield in collaboration with AstraZeneca. An additional EUL filing is under review by the WHO for the vaccine to be marketed by Novavax under the brand name Nuvaxovid.Covovax is the ninth Covid-19 vaccine to be listed for emergency use by the WHO. It is produced by the Serum Institute of India under the licence from Novavax. The approval was given with the aim of providing higher access to vaccines in lower-income countries.

 According to WHO, Covovax was assessed under its emergency use listing procedure based on the review of data on quality, safety and efficacy, a risk management plan, programmatic suitability, and manufacturing site inspections carried out by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).