From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 19, 2020
UN stockpiling 1 billion syringes for COVID-19 vaccine
The United Nations says it will stockpile one billion syringes around the world by the end of 2021, to be used for the delivery of any future coronavirus vaccine.
UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, says it aims to get 520 million syringes in its warehouses by the end of this year, to guarantee an initial supply in countries ahead of the vaccine.
“The world will need as many syringes as doses of vaccine,” UNICEF says in a statement.
UNICEF says it is also buying five million safety boxes for used syringes.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed 40 million on Monday, according to an AFP tally based on official sources. More than 1.1 million deaths have been recorded across the globe.
“Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 will be one of the largest mass undertakings in human history, and we will need to move as quickly as the vaccines can be produced,” says UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore.
“By the end of the year, we will already have over half a billion syringes pre-positioned where they can be deployed quickly and cost effectively.”
— AFP
The Times of Israel Community.