- Coronavirus vaccination campaigns have started worldwide, with the UK, US, Canada, the European Union, Russia, and China at the forefront.
- Several vaccines have been authorized for emergency use, with countries establishing specific vaccination rules to make the most of the limited supply available in the early weeks of 2021.
- An online tracker highlights the vaccination performance of the countries that have started COVID-19 immunizations, providing the latest stats available from those governments.
The first coronavirus vaccination campaigns have started in various places. Russia has been using its vaccines for months, after allowing the general public to get inoculated with the controversial drug before the research was completed. China started its public vaccinations campaign early for certain categories of people, although the nation shared more research data about several leading vaccines last year than Russia ever did.
Three coronavirus vaccine frontrunners dominated the news in the Western world, and they were the first to clear Phase 3 trials. The Pfizer/BioNTech drug is widely used, with the UK, US, Canada, and EU having issued emergency approvals. Moderna’s candidate was approved in the US days after the BioNTech drug, with the EU issuing emergency authorization for it this week. The UK and India have both approved the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine. On top of those, several candidates will finish Phase 3 trials in the coming months, and some of them are expected to receive emergency authorizations.
Not all countries have access to the same vaccines, however. And it’s usually the world’s richest nations that secure access to these drugs first, with poorer countries waiting longer for supply. Most countries have chosen to administer the vaccines in phases, starting with at-risk populations. Some are faring better than others, and there’s a tracker that allows anyone to inspect the COVID-19 vaccine performance of any country in the world.
If you’ve been using the Johns Hopkins tracker or The Coronavirus App to follow COVID-19 statistics this past year, you’ll want to add the COVID Vaccination tracker that Our World in Data published.
“A global, aggregated database on COVID-19 vaccination rates is essential to monitor progress, but it is unfortunately not yet available,” the organization says. “When a global, or aggregated regional database — such as European data collated by the European CDC — becomes available, Our World in Data will provide these weekly updates of vaccination rates, presented in our interactive COVID-19 Explorer, and our Complete COVID-19 Dataset.”
Our World in Data proposes several maps that feature different statistics. For example, this one shows the vaccination doses administered per 100 people.
If you’re wondering about actual figures, 14.56 million vaccine doses have been distributed as of January 5th, with the United States and China having both surpassed 4.5 million doses. Israel has the best performance so far per capita, with a total of 1.37 million doses administered. The UK has inoculated fewer than 950,000 people, according to statistics dating back to December 27th. Russia sits at 800,000 doses, but that data dates back to January 2nd.
The next map shows the average number of doses administered per day. As new mutations fuel new surges and threaten vaccine effectiveness, some countries will try to speed up vaccinations in the coming weeks as more supply rolls out.
Finally, the following map shows the various COVID-19 vaccination policies employed around the world. Most countries have vaccination priorities in place right now, with widespread vaccination to be available in the coming months.
You can check updated versions of the maps and charts above over at this link, with Our World In Data also listing the sources of data for each of the countries that have started COVID-19 immunizations, as well as the kind of vaccines that are used. A different tracker, available here, shows the vaccine performance of US states.
