NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African health officials and the United Nations are warning of a looming shortage of more than 2 billion syringes for mainly low- and middle-income countries around the world as the supply of COVID-19 doses rises, and routine vaccinations could be affected, too.
The U.N. children’s agency said the shortfall would affect up to 2.2 billion auto-disposable syringes that lock automatically to prevent them from being used again. “We are not anticipating a significant supply shortage of the more standard syringes used in high-income countries,” the agency said in a statement. It blamed “significantly higher demand,” supply chain disruptions, national bans on syringe exports and an unpredictable supply of vaccines.
