The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has invested $10.7 million in the Task Force for Global Health to help set up COVID-19 immunization programs in up to 50 low- and middle-income countries and to start a U.S. COVID-19 vaccine information program.
Both the CDC and the Task Force for Global Health are based in Atlanta.
Most of the countries that will be part of the $7.2 million global immunization program initiative are in Africa, said Dr. Joseph Bresee, the lead for the program, director of the Task Force’s Partnership for Influenza Vaccine Introduction (PIVI), and associate director, global health affairs, Influenza Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The funds are part of the total $16.25 billion in COVID-19 supplemental funding allocated to the CDC through three congressional acts.
The countries to be targeted expect to get their first vaccine doses in the next few weeks to a month or two, Bresee said. The first phase of the project is developing work plans for the countries to implement immunization programs based on the countries’ individual financial and support needs, he said. The first country won’t have its work plan mapped for another week or so, he said on Feb. 19.
