Coronavirus: global vaccine doses ‘top 3 billion’ as Delta strain spreads
- About 43 million doses being administered every day, according to Bloomberg data
- Highly infectious Delta strain first identified in India is spreading globally
Of the about 43 million doses now being administered every day, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker, almost half are being performed in China.
China’s pace of vaccinations is enough to cover 75 per cent of the population there with a two-dose vaccine in about a month from now, a remarkably rapid roll-out that has eclipsed similar efforts in the United States, the European Union and India.
The pace of the global vaccine effort continues to accelerate. It took 143 days to perform the first billion doses, and another 40 days for the second billion. The third billion doses were performed in 26 days, according to Bloomberg’s data.
At least 3.9 million people have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, and the pattern of vaccinations globally is highly uneven.
According to an AFP count, high-income countries as defined by the World Bank have administered an average of 79 doses per 100 inhabitants.