G7 urged to donate 'emergency' supplies to vaccine-sharing scheme

The head of Unicef on Monday asked G7 countries to donate supplies to the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme as an emergency measure to address a severe shortfall caused by disruption to Indian vaccine exports.

India has curbed exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by its Serum Institute, which had been pledged to Covaz, to be used by the country as it battles a massive second wave of infections.

UN agency Unicef, which is in charge of supplying coronavirus vaccines through Covax, a global programme to provide vaccines mainly for poor countries, estimates the supply shortfall at 140 million doses by the end of May...