COVAX Global Initiative For COVID-19 Vaccines Comes To An End Amid Shift To Regular Programs

COVAX, the multilateral mechanism for equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines launched in 2020, will close on 31 December 2023. 

Jointly led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO), COVAX has so far supplied nearly 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses and safe injection devices to 146 economies. 

Its efforts are estimated to have helped avert the deaths of at least 2.7 million people in the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) low- and lower-middle-income participating economies (lower-income economies) that received free doses through the mechanism, alongside nearly $2 billion in critical support.

Low- and lower-middle-income economies will continue receiving COVID-19 vaccines and delivery support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in 2024 and 2025, with 83 million doses requested for 2024 from 58 economies. 

With collaboration from manufacturers, all of COVAX's advance purchase supply agreements will have been completed or terminated by the end of 2023, except one, where a modest volume of supply will continue into the first half of 2024 in support of the new COVID-19 routine immunization program.

WHO labeled the JN.1 coronavirus strain as a "variant of interest," stating that while it can bypass the immune system and spread more easily, current evidence suggests a low public health risk. 

Initially part of lineage BA.2.86, JN.1 is now recognized as a separate variant of interest by WHO, Reuters noted. Existing vaccines are expected to remain effective against severe illness and death caused by JN.1 and other COVID-19 variants. 

The CDC reported that JN.1 accounts for about 15%-29% of cases in the U.S.