COVID-19 vaccine: High-income nations to get bulk of doses, says US study

India is the biggest buyer of COVID-19 vaccines in the world, with an advance purchase made of 1.6 billion does. The caveat is that it would cover only 59 per cent of the country's population, says a study by a private research university in the United States.

The study by the Duke University shows a massive gap in the vaccine purchases made by rich nations and developing countries through these trends.

The data that has come out in this research shows how the bulk of COVID-19 vaccines will go to high-income nations, once they are available. The high-income countries are making purchases in a bid to increase their chances of covering the entire population multiple times.

For the low and middle-income countries as well as equity-focused partnerships such as COVAX, there will simply be not enough doses left.

When it comes to the number of doses, India is at the top followed by the European Union, which has 1.36 billion doses from six firms. Then, it is the US with 1.1 billion doses, followed by vaccine alliance COVAX, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

If the population is considered, Canada alone has doses enough to vaccinate its population more than five times over, says the study.

According to the data in the study, Canada would have doses to cover 601 per cent of their population, the US 443 per cent, the UK 418 per cent, and Australia 266 per cent.

On the other hand, developing countries like India would be able to cover only 59 per cent of the population, Mexico 84 per cent, Brazil 46 per cent, and the Philippines only one per cent of its population.

India's Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stated earlier that the government has never planned to vaccinate the entire country. He added that the goal was to reach a critical mass of vaccinated people in order to break the chain of transmission.

In India, the first priority for vaccination against COVID-19 would be given to 1 crore healthcare professionals, followed by the police and the armed forces, people aged above 50 and those below the age of 50 with co-morbidities.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had said that eight vaccine candidates were scheduled to be manufactured in India, including three indigenously developed ones.