Afghanistan receives 468,000 vaccine doses

Kabul: Afghanistan has received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from the international vaccine-sharing programme Covax, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The 468,000 doses delivered are a fraction of the nearly 3 million that are to be eventually provided for free to Afghanistan, an official at the WHO, Najibullah Safi, said. Covax is a joint effort by the WHO and the Gavi alliance, a public-private vaccine programme that coordinates the project. The scheme’s aim is to reduce the vaccine divide between wealthy and poorer countries. (DpA)