As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, UNICEF has begun laying the groundwork for the rapid, safe and efficient delivery of the eventual vaccine by purchasing and pre-positioning syringes and other necessary equipment.
As soon as COVID-19 vaccines successfully emerge from trials and are licensed and recommended for use, the world will need as many syringes as doses of vaccine.
To begin preparations, this year, UNICEF will stockpile 520 million syringes in its warehouses, part of a larger plan of one billion syringes by 2021, to guarantee initial supply and help ensure that syringes arrive in countries before the COVID-19 vaccines, UNICEF said in a statement on Monday.
It said during 2021, assuming there are enough doses of COVID-19 vaccines, UNICEF anticipates delivering over one billion syringes to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts on top of the 620 million syringes that UNICEF will purchase for other vaccination programmes against other diseases such as measles, typhoid and more.
“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,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.
“In order to move fast later, we must move fast now. 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. That’s enough syringes to wrap around the world one and a half times,” she said.
The statement said in line with the longstanding collaboration between the two partners, Gavi will reimburse UNICEF for the procurement of the syringes and safety boxes, which shall then be used for the COVID-19 Vaccine Global ACcess facility (COVAX facility) and for other Gavi-funded immunization programmes if necessary.
It said besides syringes, UNICEF is also buying five million safety boxes so that used syringes and needles can be disposed in a safe manner by personnel at health facilities, thus preventing the risk of needle stick injuries and blood borne diseases.
Every safety box carries 100 syringes. Accordingly, UNICEF is “bundling” the syringes with safety boxes to ensure enough safety boxes are available to go along with the syringes.