Nearly a month later, there has still not been a single dose of a licensed Western vaccine administered on the continent of Africa – even as roughly 60 million doses have been given worldwide.

It also underscores the colossal challenge ahead for the global coalition, known as COVAX, scrambling to secure vaccine doses for the world’s poorest nations.

“The price of not solving the vaccine distribution problem internationally will be measured in lives,” said Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A small group of rich countries--comprising just 16 percent of the world’s population--have locked up 60 percent of the global vaccine supply, according to Duke University’s Global Health Institute.

Australia, Canada and Japan account for 1% of the world’s coronavirus cases, Bollyky said, but they have amassed more doses than all of Latin America and the Caribbean, which have close to 20% of cases.

The initial goal of the coalition, which includes global health groups like the World Health Organization and over 190 nations, is to buy 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 in order to inoculate 20% of the population in the 100 or so poorest countries.

“It’s the greatest logistical challenge on a scale we’ve not seen before in global public health,” said Gian Gandhi, COVAX coordinator for UNICEF, which is leading the group’s efforts to buy and deliver vaccines.

The total cost is expected to reach up to $17 billion, Gandhi said, but the coalition has only $2 billion on hand and has yet to receive even a single dose of coronavirus vaccine despite having agreements in place to secure 1.97 million doses.

The coalition on Friday announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of its vaccine.

COVAX also said it will exercise an option to receive its first 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

But for the world’s poorest countries, COVAX is a lifeline --the only viable path to receiving vaccine doses.

With the world’s wealthy countries hoarding vaccines, COVAX has resorted to pleas for donations of viable doses from wealthy countries -- the sooner, the better.

“The challenge that we have with COVAX is that currently, it's a charitable enterprise,” Bollyky said.

If COVAX can’t vaccinate frontline healthcare workers in developing nations, it could disrupt long standing vaccination programs, Gandhi said, leading to a resurgence of diseases like measles and polio, which the world is close to eradicating