About 30% of Israelis have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine which is a rate that outperforms any other country. The United States is far behind now, with about 6% of residents having received a vaccine dose, and even at a slower start are the countries of European Union.
The data on countries with a current vaccination campaign was compiled from government sources by Our World in Data.
The developing countries and some other countries too have struggled to acquire vaccines that are not yet vaccinating residents at all.
In our latest World Economic Outlook, we project global growth of 5.5% for 2021 but much depends on the outcome of the race between the virus and vaccines, and on the policy support provided. Read @GitaGopinath’s latest #IMFblog. #WEO https://t.co/l6a6MLEYha pic.twitter.com/1ey1gvSSrl
— IMF (@IMFNews) January 27, 2021
Two vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna are used by most of the countries and both of them require two doses.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with the highest in world’s vaccination rates
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are the two countries with among the world’s highest vaccination rates. These two countries are also using a vaccine developed by the Chinese company called Sinopharm, which has not been approved in the United States or the Europe Union for use.
Israel will reach half its population with at least one dose of the vaccine in just four weeks at its present rate, though the vaccination campaign and the vaccinated rate excludes Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip, who may have to wait several months for widespread distribution.
What about the European countries?
However, most of the European countries are months away from reaching Israel’s levels of vaccination.
Part of the difference stems from when vaccines were approved in a country. The Pfizer vaccine was approved by the the European Union 10 days later than the United States and nearly three weeks after it got approval in the U.K.
Even after the vaccine was approved, many countries faced the distribution hurdle. One of the Europe’s richest countries, The Netherlands was the last in the European Union to begin its vaccination campaign, on Jan. 6th, a week and a half after neighboring Germany, and almost a month after the United Kingdom.
Europe’s slow vaccine rollout has been hindered due to the supply shortages and a lack of nurses and burdensome paperwork.
However, criticism of the EU’s procurement strategy has grown louder as new variants of the virus threaten to take hold of the continent.
On the other hand, Hungarian authorities recently broke with the bloc to approve Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, along with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Hungary also agreed to purchase China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
Where does India stand in the vaccination drive?
India has vaccinated 2 million health workers in less than two weeks and recorded 12,689 new coronavirus positive cases in the past 24 hours, a sharp decline from a peak level of nearly 100,000 in mid-September.
India started inoculating health workers on Jan. 16 in what is likely to be the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
India is home to the world’s largest vaccine makers. Authorities hope to give shots to 300 million people. The recipients include 30 million doctors, nurses and other front-line workers
If Europe is moving slow, the developing countries are far behind
Almost all nations in the developing are behind Europe. The other wealthier countries have preordered more than half the doses that could come to market by the end of the year, in many cases enough to vaccinate their populations several times over.
And many poorer nations may be able to vaccinate 1 in 5 residents, at most, by then.
