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Her family searched frantically for medical care, but hospitals were deluged and oxygen tanks were selling for $660 on the black market $260 more than what Khan’s husband earns in a month.
The family pooled resources to buy a tank, and then made a desperate decision. They were planning to travel nearly 700 miles to a private hospital where a friend works in hopes that Khan would be able to receive treatment there.
“I’ve never seen a humanitarian crisis of this proportion in India,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, who is in Mumbai. “It’s just horrible.
MUMBAI: US drug major Pfizer said it will offer its Covid-19 vaccine at a not-for-profit price for the government’s immunization program.
The company said it continues to be in discussions with the government, and remains committed to make the vaccine available for deployment in the country’s vaccination program.
The company is yet to reapply to the government for emergency authorisation for its vaccine, after withdrawing its application in February.
Recently, the government has decided to fast track approvals for foreign-produced Covid-19 vaccines authorised by major global regulators, by doing away with bridging trial studies prior to regulatory approval.
Ghanaian Global Healthcare Center in Africa modernghana.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from modernghana.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Access to COVID-19 vaccines: Global approaches in a global crisis
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Abstract
Following the extraordinarily rapid development of COVID‑19 vaccines, immunisation is underway in many OECD countries. However, demand will continue to outstrip supply for some time and currently, distribution is strongly skewed in favour of high-income countries. This both inequitable and inefficient. Directing vaccine to where need is greatest would maximise the number of lives saved and speed bringing the pandemic under control, by slowing transmission and reducing the likelihood of the emergence of viral variants of concern. Governments should therefore act now to accelerate vaccination globally, regardless of international borders, by reallocating supplies to areas of greatest need; continuing the scaling-up of production; ensuring that necessary logistics and health care infrastructure are in place; providing further financial and in-kind support to COVAX; and developing long-term strategies tha