UN-backed program laments vaccine supply woes, looks to US

GENEVA (AP) — A leader of the U.N.-backed program to ship COVID-19 vaccines to needy people in low- and middle-income countries expressed disappointment on Friday about supply delays from a key Indian manufacturer, but says he hopes the United States can begin sharing shots soon.

Dr. Seth Berkley, the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said doses for health care workers and other high-risk groups in such countries to be delivered through the COVAX program will be set back weeks.

He was elaborating on an announcement a day earlier from Gavi and its partners that as many as 90 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India will be delayed through the end of April as India’s government grapples with a spike in infections.

“We are disappointed,” Berkley told The Associated Press. He said talks continued with India's government and the SII "with the hope that we can get some of those doses freed up and be able to then move back into full-swing scale-up later, in perhaps May.”

“We had hoped to reach all health care workers and high-risk groups by the end of March,” Berkley said.

Production from a South Korean company that is also producing the AstraZeneca vaccine, SK Bioscience, is “moving a little slower than we originally expected” due largely “to the fact that the supply chain is new,” Berkley said.

COVAX has shipped some 31 million doses to roughly 60 countries in recent weeks and had previously announced plans to ship 237 million AstraZeneca doses by the end of May, part of plans to deploy some 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines worldwide this year.

But vaccine supply concerns have weighed in particularly on hard-hit countries like those in the European Union and in India in recent weeks, causing a surge in so-called...