Switzerland secures early access to Covid-19 vaccine
The American company Moderna, which is developing the vaccine, will deliver 4.5 million doses to Switzerland, health officials announced on Friday.
“The government wants to ensure that the Swiss population has rapid access to a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine”, the Federal Office of Public (FOPH) said on its website.
FOPH added that if the vaccine passes the test phase successfully and is authorised in Switzerland, the government will receive 4.5 million doses.
Since two doses of the vaccine will be needed, this means 2.25 million people, about a fourth of the country’s population, can be vaccinated against Covid-19 — the only known strategy so far to build the immunity to the disease.
Referring to the vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday against "vaccine nationalism," saying vaccine-hogging richer countries would not be safe coronavirus havens if poor nations remained exposed.
"For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it's a globalised world: the economies are intertwined”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
"The damage from COVID-19 could be less when those countries who... have the funding commit to this”, he added.
READ MORE: WHO warns of Europe virus spike as countries impose new curbs
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“The government wants to ensure that the Swiss population has rapid access to a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine”, the Federal Office of Public (FOPH) said on its website.
FOPH added that if the vaccine passes the test phase successfully and is authorised in Switzerland, the government will receive 4.5 million doses.
Since two doses of the vaccine will be needed, this means 2.25 million people, about a fourth of the country’s population, can be vaccinated against Covid-19 — the only known strategy so far to build the immunity to the disease.
Referring to the vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday against "vaccine nationalism," saying vaccine-hogging richer countries would not be safe coronavirus havens if poor nations remained exposed.
"For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it's a globalised world: the economies are intertwined”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
"The damage from COVID-19 could be less when those countries who... have the funding commit to this”, he added.
READ MORE: WHO warns of Europe virus spike as countries impose new curbs
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