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Managing the challenges associated with decreasing demand for COVID-19 vaccination in Central and West Asia

Countries
Armenia
+ 6 more
Sources
BMJ
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Alexander Bongers, Giovanna Riggall, Larissa Kokareva, Brian Chin

Abstract

Since the first administration of COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020, countries have experienced a range of challenges at different phases of their COVID-19 vaccination programmes. Initially, with limited global COVID-19 vaccine supply, the WHO called for vaccine equity to ensure the most vulnerable people in every country globally had access to vaccine, and COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access was established to facilitate equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine. However, the aims of these initiatives were challenged as many countries secured earlier access to COVID-19 vaccine with direct agreements with manufacturers. During the early stages of COVID-19 vaccination programmes, the rate of vaccine uptake was determined by number of COVID-19 vaccines approved for use and the manufacturing capacity of the manufacturers of these vaccines. It is a very different situation in 2022, where COVID-19 vaccination coverage is no longer determined by access to supply and manufacturers are reducing or stopping production of vaccines completely. Uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in 2022 is dependent on complex issues like vaccine hesitancy. This paper focuses on the Central and West Asia region, where the authors have been supporting COVID-19 vaccination programmes across seven countries in this region. In this paper, we outline and describe the different phases of demand for COVID-19 vaccination as well as the risks and strategies to consider in each of these phases.

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