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Switzerland to donate vaccines to Covax

Thursday, 13 May 2021 04:59

The health minister, Alain Berset, says Switzerland will donate 3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it has ordered to the international Covax programme designed to help poorer countries.

In total the government has 5 and a half million doses available. But the regulator, Swissmedic has yet to approve the drug. 

Berset says if approval is given, AstraZeneca will only be a small part of the country’s vaccination programme.

The current two vaccines being used, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, use mRNA technology which many doctors say offer the best protection against possible new variants. 

The AstraZeneca jab is a viral-vector vaccine.

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