Paris, France.
some fifty countries have already begun their vaccination campaign against the new coronavirus, just a year after the first alert issued by the Chinese authorities to the World Health Organization (WHO).
China at the forefront
China was the first country to launch, since the northern summer, a vaccination campaign reserved for those most at risk (employees and students going abroad, caregivers, etc.).
More than five million doses of Chinese experimental vaccines have been injected into the country, which was officially approved on Thursday by one developed by Sinopharm.
Russia followed on December 5, when it began vaccinating at-risk workers with Sputnik V, the vaccine developed by the Russian National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Gamaleya.
This vaccine has since been approved by Belarus and Argentina, which began their vaccination campaign on Tuesday. Algeria will follow in his footsteps in January.
The United Kingdom, first in the West
The United Kingdom was, for its part, the first Western country to authorize the vaccine developed by the US-German alliance Pfizer-BioNTech. His immunization campaign began on December 8 and more than 800,000 people have already received the first of two doses of the vaccine, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The country was also the first to approve the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine on Wednesday, which will be injected into the British from 4 January.
In the West, it was followed by Canada and the United States on 14 December. Later Switzerland on the 23rd and Serbia on the 24th, almost all of the European Union on Sunday, Norway on Sunday and Iceland on Tuesday, all with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The United States and Canada were also the first two countries to authorize the Modern American Laboratory Vaccine.
More than 2.8 million Americans have already received a dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the EU, Germany is the country that has vaccinated the most so far, with more than 130,000 doses in five days.
The sprint of Israel
In the Middle East, the UAE was the first to launch its campaign with Chinese doses of Sinopharm on December 14 in Abu Dhabi, the capital. Also in the UAE, Dubai began immunizing on December 23 with doses of Pfizer-BioNTech.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain began their campaign on December 17, Israel on the 19th, Qatar on the 23rd, Kuwait on the 24th. Oman is due to begin its campaign on Sunday. All of these countries initially opted for Pfizer-BioNTech.
Israel, which pledged to a veritable sprint to immunize a quarter of its population in a month, has already injected more than 800,000 doses, Bahrain more than 60,000 and Oman more than 3,000, according to official figures.
In Latin America, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica began their campaign on December 24, with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
In Asia, Singapore began its vaccination this Wednesday with the same product. The other mainland countries do not seem to be in the same hurry: India, Japan and Taiwan plan to start their campaigns in the first quarter, the Philippines and Pakistan will wait for the second, and Afghanistan and Thailand in mid-2021.
In sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, there are still no vaccination plans. Guinea Conakry, which began injecting 60 first doses of Sputnik V on Wednesday before deciding whether or not to launch its campaign, is emerging as a pioneer on its continent.