Millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses promised by COVAX to poor nations aren't being delivered as planned.
The multibillion-dollar international program to immunize the world is struggling to meet targets.
The world's poorest countries have been told there will be delays in deliveries in the coming months. The program - championed by the World Health Organization - is reportedly running out of vaccines as its main supplier in India suddenly cut off its deliveries.
The COVAX program initially aimed to vaccinate the world's entire health care workforce before the end of this month. However, tens of millions of hospital workers have yet to receive second doses.
Apart from a reduction in supply, COVAX's undertaking faced nations putting their own populations first and a gaping shortage in the world's manufacturing capacity.
Last week, the Serum Institute of India said it won't be able to restart deliveries until the end of the year. The institute said its decision was a matter of national security as its supply is the country's lifeline given a recent rise in new cases. India is currently experiencing more than 200,000 new cases per day.
The Serum Institute previously promised to deliver 200 million doses to COVAX. More than 111 million of those were to be delivered by the end of this year and most were destined for Africa and the Asia Pacific. As of this week, COVAX had distributed about 30 million doses only.
According to UNICEF, the world is currently about 140 million doses short. By June, the organization says the gap will widen to 190 million. This is a problem for poor countries.
"We are concerned that the deadly spike in India is a precursor to what will happen if those warnings remain unheeded. The cost for children and families will be incalculable," UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said.
