The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects to grant emergency approval to one or two new Covid-19 vaccines in the next month or two, a top expert said on Friday.
Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said the organisation had received submissions from at least three vaccine makers for emergency approval.
She did not specify which new vaccines were being considered.
The WHO has so far given emergency approval to vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sinopharm and Sinovac.
'Global failure'
Meanwhile, the WHO's head said on Friday that vaccine shortages in poor countries were a global failure.
The world's inability to provide enough Covid-19 vaccines for poor countries was a failure that highlights injustice, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
"It's not hesitancy. It's lack of vaccines. And the situation in many low-income countries, especially Africa, it's very worrisome," he said.
"There is no vaccine. You can't even talk about delivery or absorption capacity when there's no vaccine."
